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DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  INTERIOR. 
OFFICE  OF  THE  SECRETARY. 


GENERAL  INFORMATION 

REGARDING 


CASA  GRANDE  RUIN,  ARIZONA.1 


GENERAL  STATEMENT. 

The  ruin  known  by  the  Spanish  name  Casa  Grande,  "  Great  House," 
is  situated  near  the  left  bank  of  the  Gila  River  about  12  miles  from 
the  site  of  the  present  town  of  Florence,  Ariz.  It  can  be  conveniently 
reached  by  carriage  either  from  the  town  of  Florence  or  from  Casa 
Grande  station  on  the  Southern  Pacific  Railroad.  The  route  to  the 
ruin  via  Florence  is  slightly  shorter  than  that  from  Casa  Grande 
station,  enabling  one  to  make  the  visit  and  return  in  a  single  day. 
There  are  a  hotel  and  livery  stables  in  both  towns,  but  the  visitor 
should  provide  for  his  own  refreshment  at  the  ruin,  where  there  is 
a  good  well  with  abundant  water.2 

This  reservation  was  set  aside  by  Executive  order  dated  June  22, 
1892,  under  the  act  approved  March  2,  1889  (25  Stat.,  961).  By 
presidential  proclamation  of  December  10,  1909,  the  boundaries  of 
the  reservation  were  changed  by  the  elimination  of  120  acres  on 
which  there  were  no  prehistoric  ruins  and  the  inclusion  of  a  tract  of 
120  acres  adjoining  the  reservation  on  the  east,  on  which  are  located 
important  mounds  of  historic  and  scientific  interest. 

HISTORY. 

The  first  known  white  man  to  visit  Casa  Grande  was  the  intrepid 
Jesuit  Father  Eusebio  Francisco  Kino,  or  Kuehne,  the  pioneer  mis- 
sionary among  the  Opata,  Pima,  Papago,  and  Sobaipuri  Indians 
from  1687  until  his  death  in  1711.  In  1694  Lieut.  Juan  Mateo 
Mange,  nephew  of  Don  Domingo  Jironza  Petriz  de  Cruzate,  the 
newly  appointed  governor  of  Sonora,  was  commissioned  to  escort 

1  This  circular  is  an  abstract  of  a  detailed  report  .by  J.  W.  Fewkes,  published  in  the 
Twenty-eighth  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology.  This  report  may 
be  consulted  at  the  principal  libraries  or  may  be  purchased  from  the  Superintendent  o'f 
Documents,  Government  Printing  Office,  Washington,  I).  ('.,  for  $1.1T>. 

3  The  resident  custodian,  Mr.  Prank  Pincklcy,  has  built  his  house  in  Compound  A,  and 
has  likewise  dug  a  well,  no  water  having  been  available  when  he  took  up  his  residence  at 
the  ruin.  On  account  of  the  extreme  heat  in  midsummer,  the  autumn,  winter,  or  spring 
months  are  best  seasons  of  the  year  in  which  to  visit  the  ruins  at  Casa  Grande. 

92960°— 13 1 


CASA   GRANDE   RUIN,   ARIZONA. 


the  missionaries  on  their  perilous  journeys  among  the  strange  and 
sometimes  hostile  tribes  of  the  region.  In  June  of  that  year,  while 
making  a  reconnoissance  toward  the  northeast  from  Kino's  mission 
of  Dolores  on  the  western  branch  of  the  Rio  Sonora,  Mange  heard 
from  the  Indians  of  some  casffs  grandes,  massive  and  very  high,  on 
the  margin  of  a  river  which  flowed  toward  the  west.  The  news  was 
communicated  to  Kino  and  shortly  afterwards  was  confirmed  by  some 


Reservation  boun  dary 


| 

1 

1 


CASA    GRANDE 


Seo. 


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1 


RESERV 


'ATI  ON 


| 


Caaa  'Ir.-mdo  Ruin  Reservation,  Avi/..,  embracing  tho  NW.  },  the  NK.  ?,.  the  X.  J  of  the 
S\V.  1,  sincl  Hi.-  X.  i  of  the  SE.  i  of  sec.  16,  T.  5  S.,  R.  «  K.,  Oiln  and  Salt  River 
meridian ;  set  aside  by  executive  order  of  June  22,  1892,  under  act  of  March  2,  1889. 

Indians  who  visited  Dolores  from  San  Xavier  del  Bac,  on  the  Rio 
Santa  Cruz  below  the  Indian  village  of  Tucson.  In  November, 
1WI-,  Kino  went  from  his  mission  on  a  tour  of  discovery,  finding 
Casa  Grande  to  be  as  reported,  and  saying  mass  within  its  walls.1 
The  house  was  described  as  large  and  ancient  and  certainly  four 
stories  high.  In  the  immediate  vicinity  were  to  be  seen  the  ruins 
of  other  houses,  and  in  the  country  toward  the  north,  east,  and  west 

1  Mange  in  Doc.  His.  Mex.,  4th  ser.,  I,  250,  259,  Mexico,  1856. 


CASA   GRANDE   RUIN,   ARIZONA.  3 

were  ruins  of  similar  structures.  Kino  believed  that  Casa  Grande 
was  the  ruin  (Chichilticalli)  spoken  of  in  1539  by  Fray  Marcos  de 
Niza,1  whose  journey  was  followed  in  the  next  year  by  Coronado's 
famous  expedition.  Ortega,  Kino's  biographer,  speaks  of  the  ancient 
traditions  of  the  Mexicans  (Aztec),  favorably  received  by  all  the 
historians  of  New  Spain,  that  this  Gila  locality,  as  well  as  the  Casas 
Grandes  of  Chihuahua,  was  one  of  the  stopping  places  on  their 
migration  southward  to  the  Valley  of  Mexico.  This  belief  was  preva- 
lent during  the  period,  and  Casa  Grande  on  the  Gila  is  frequently 
marked  on  early  maps  as  an  Aztec  sojourning  place.  For  this  reason 
it  was  also  commonly  designated  Casa  de  Montezuma.  There  seems 
no  foundation  for  the  association  of  the  people  of  Casa  Grande 
with  the  Aztec,  and  Considerable  doubt  exists  whether  the  ruin  was 
ever  visited  by  Coronado  or  any  of  his  companions. 

Almost  every  writer  on  the  Southwest  who  has  dealt  with  the 
ruins  of  Arizona  has  introduced  short  references  to  Casa  Grande, 
and  many  other  writers  have  incidentally  referred  to  it  in  discussing 
the  antiquities  of  Mexico  and  Central  America.  Among  the  former 
are  Browne,2  Ruxton,3  and  Hinton,4  while  among  the  latter  may  be 
mentioned  Prescott,5  Brantz  Mayer,6  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,7  Hum- 
boldt,8  Miihlenpfordt,9  and  Squier.10 

The  Pima  Indians,  who  dwell  in  the  neighborhood,  claim  Casa 
Grande  as  the  habitation  of  one  of  their  ancient  chiefs,  and  designate 
it  by  several  names,  among  which  are  Vaaki,  Old  House;  Civana- 
vaaki,  Old  House  of  the  Chief;  and  Sialim  Civanavaaki,  Old  House 
of  Chief  Morning  Green. 

Casa  Grande  was  a  ruin  when  discovered  and  has  not  been  perma- 
nently inhabited  since  it  was  first  seen  by  a  white  man.  The  identity 
of  its  builders  has  furnished  a  constant  theme  for  speculation  from 
the  discovery  of  the  ruin  to  the  present  time.  Although  it  has  been 
ascribed  to  the  Aztec,  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  ancient  people  who 
inhabited  this  building  were  closely  related  to  any  tribes  of  the 
Mexican  plateau,  whose  culture,  as  indicated  by  archeologic  remains, 
was  different  from  that  of  the  Pueblos,  or  sedentary  tribes  of  New 
Mexico  and  Arizona.  The  age  of  Casa  Grande  and  contiguous 
remains  is  unknown,  but  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  settle- 
ments on  their  site  were  older  than  most  of  the  present  pueblos  or 
cliff  dwellings.  The  Pima  claim,  however,  that  it  is  not  so  old  as 
ruins  of  the  same  general  character  situated  near  Phoenix,  on  Salt 
River,  a  short  distance  from  its  junction  with  the  Gila. 

1  (Ortega)    Apostolicos  afanes  de  la   Compania   de  Jesus,   escrito   por  un   Padre  de   la 
misma  sagrada  religion  de  su  Provincia  de  Mexico,  p.  25:5,  I5arcelonn.  1754. 

2  Browne   (J.  Ross),  Adventures  in  the  Apache  Country,  pp.  114—124,  New  York,  18(59. 
M  Ruxton    (George    Frederic),    Sur    la    migration    des    Aneiens    Mexicains ;    in    Nouvelles 

Annnlcs  des  Voyages,  5me  ser.,  t.  XXII,  pp.  40,  46,  52,  Paris,  1850. 

4  Hinton  (Richard  J.).  The  Great  House  of  Montezuma;  in  Harper's  Weekly,  XXXIII 
New  York,  May  18,  1889. 

6  Prescott  (Wm.  H.).  History  of  the  Conquest  of  Mexico,  III,  p.  38.3,  Philadelphia 
[c.  1873]. 

6  Mayer  (Brantz),  (1)  Mexico,  Aztec,  Spanish,  and  Repuhlican,  II,  p.  ::'.»<;.  Hartford, 
1853.  (2)  Observations  on  Mexican  History  and  Archaeology  ;  in  Smithsonian  Contribu- 
tions to  Knowledge,  IX,  p.  15,  Washington,  1856. 

1  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  (M.  1'Abbe),  Histoire  des  nations  civilisees  du  Mexique  et  de 
I'Amenque-Centrale,  t.  2,  p.  197,  Paris,  1858. 

8  Humboldt  (Friedrich  II.  Alex,  de),  Essai  politique  sur  le  royaume  de  la  Nouvelle- 
Espagne,  t.  I,  p.  297,  Paris,  1811. 

"Miihlenpfordt  (Eduardt,  Versuch  einer  getreuen  Schilderung  der  Republik  Mejico,  Bd. 
II,  p.  435,  Hannover,  1844. 

10  Squier  (E.  G.),  New  Mexico  and  California  ;  in  American  Review,  Nov.,  1848. 


4  CASA   GRANDE   RUIN,   ARIZONA. 

MAIN  BUILDING. 

CONSTRUCTION. 

The  walls  of  Casa  Grande  are  of  a  fawn  color  slightly  tinged 
with  red.  Externally  they  are  rough  and  very  much  eroded,  but 
the  interior  walls  are  plastered,  still  showing  places  that  formerly,  in 
the  words  of  Father  Kino,  were  as  smooth  as  Puebla  pottery." 

The  walls  are  constructed  of  a  natural  cement,  commonly  called 
caliche  by  the  Mexicans,  composed  of  lime,  earth,  and  pebbles;  this 
was  made  into  blocks,  which  were  laid  in  courses.  These  blocks  are 
supposed  to  have  been  made  in  position,  the  materials  therefor  being 
rammed  into  bottomless  baskets  or  wooden  frames  that  were  raised 
as  the  work  progressed  until  the  wall  reached  the  desired  height. 
The  blocks  are  not  of  uniform  size,  consequently  the  horizontal 
joints  of  the  courses  are  not  always  the  same  distance  apart. 
Although  clearly  shown  in  the  outside  walls,  these  joints  are  not 
visible  in  the  interior  walls  on  account  of  the  plastering. 

The  exterior  faces  of  the  walls  are  not  perfectly  plumb,  the  thick- 
ness of  the  walls  at  the  top  being  much  less  than  at  the  base.  Impres- 
sions of  human  hands  appear  in  places  in  the  plaster  of  the  north 
and  the  west  rooms.  Posts  were  used  to  support  some  of  the  narrow 
walls,  and  stones  employed  for  the  same  purpose  are  found  in  their 
foundations. 

Many  conflicting  statements  regarding  the  former  height  of  Casa 
Grande  are  on  record,  most  authors  favoring  three  or  four  stories. 
There  were  undoubtedly  four  stories  counting  from  the  level  of  the 
plain  to  the  top  of  the  highest  wall,  as  could  be  seen  from  the  outside 
as  one  approached  the  structure,  but  the  lowest  story  was  filled  solid 
with  earth,  so  that  inside  the  building  there  were  really  only  three 
tiers  of  rooms,  one  above  the  other  in  the  central  part  of  the  ruin  and 
two  on  each  of  the  four  sides.  The  entrance  into  the  lowest  room 
was  on  a  level  with  the  roofs  of  the  surrounding  buildings,  forming 
a  terrace  that  surrounded  the  base  of  Casa  Grande,  Entrance  to  the 
upper  rooms  was  effected  by  means  of  ladders  from  the  outside  and 
by  hatchways.  The  positions  of  the  outside  doorways  indicate  that 
there  were  entrances  on  all  four  sides,  but  the  middle  room  had  only 
one  doorway,  which  was  situated  on  the  east  side. 

BOOMS. 

The  ground  plan  of  the  main  building  shows  that  its  walls  form 
five  incTosures,  which  may  be  termed  the  north,  west,  south,  east,  and 
central  rooms.  When  the  walls  had  reached  the  height  of  about  7 
feet,  these  inclosures  were  filled  solid  with  earth,  the  upper  surface 
forming  the  floors  of  the  rooms  of  the  first  story.  In  the  north,  west, 
eouth,  and  east  inclosures  there  were  two  rooms  above  each  ground 
room ;  the  central  room  had  three  stories,  being  one  story  higher  than 
the  rooms  which  surrounded  it. 

WALLS. 

The  interior  walls  of  the  north  rooms  in  both  stories  are  well  pre- 
served except  in  the  southeast  corner,  where  there  was  probably  a 
connection  with  six  rooms  which  extended  to  the  north  wall  of  the 


CASA   GRANDE   RUIN,   ARIZONA.  5 

inclosure.  As  indicated  by  a  series  of  holes  in  the  eastern  and  west- 
ern walls,  the  floor  beams  extended  north  and  south.  The  position 
of  the  floors  is  also  indicated  by  ledges,  or  setbacks,  one  of  the  best 
of  which  appears  on  the  level  of  the  roof  in  the  north  wall  of  the  first 
story;  there  is  also  a  narrow  ledge  on  the  south  Avail.  The  east  and 
west  walls  in  both"  stories  are  true  to  the  perpendicular  from  base  to 
top.  The  tops  of  the  north  and  west  walls  of  the  second  story  show 
setbacks,  and  the  apertures  where  the  beams  were  inserted  are  clearly 
marked.  Small  holes  indicating  that  rushes  were  used  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  roof  are  well  marked  in  the  east  and  west  walls  of 
the  second  story.  The  outer  face  of  the  north  wall  is  much  eroded 
near  the  top,  exhibiting  no  evidences  of  continuation  into  a  third 
story.  There  was  a  low  parapet  rising  slightly  above  the  roof  on 
the  north,  as  well  as  on  the  east  and  west  walls  of  the  north  room. 
Both  lower  and  upper  stories  of  the  west  room  have  smooth  walls, 
but  the  exterior  surface  of  the  Avails  of  the  central  room,  above  the 
line  of  the  second  floor,  is  rough,  indicating  that  the  western  inclosure 
never  had  more  than  two  stories.  The  east  wall  of  the  Avest  room  is 
slightly  curved,  while  the  west  Avail  of  the  same  room  is  straight. 
ROAVS  of  holes  in  the  east  Avail,  which  formerly  received  the  floor 
beams,  are  arranged  somew^hat  irregularly.  The  inner  faces  of  the 
walls  of  the  south  room  are  finely  finished,  particularly  on  the  south 
side,  although  the  Avail  itself  is  in  places  more  broken  than  the  north 
or  Avest  walls.  The  holes  for  beams  in  the  south  wall  are  less  regular 
in  arrangement  than  those  in  the  north  Avail. 

A  fragment  of  the  east  wall  of  the  south  room  remained  standing 
up  to  within  a  feAV  years,  when  the  repairs  were  made  by  contractors. 
At  one  time  the  south  room  was  excavated  far  below  its  original 
floor,  as  indicated  by  the  line  of  erosion  on  the  surface  of  the  north 
Avail  and  a  corresponding  line  on  the  opposite  side  walls.  There  were 
formerly  two  doors,  one  above  the  other,  in  the  south  Avail,  but  the 
lintel  betAA7een  them  has  disappeared,  the  south  wall  remaining  in  the 
form  of  tAvo  \rery  unsteady  sections.  The  interior  walls  of  the  east 
room  are  finely  finished,  while  the  exterior  surface  of  the  east  wall  of 
the  central  room  is  very  much  eroded.  The  exterior  surface  of  the 
east  wall  of  the  central  section  shows  the  effects  of  exposure  to  the 
weather,  suggesting  that  there  Avere  but  tAvo  stories  to  the  eastern 
part.  The  north  wall  of  the  central  rooms  runs  through  the  east 
wall  without  bonding,  suggesting  later  construction  of  the  latter.  A 
Avide  crack  left  in  the  east  Avail  AArhere  the  north  AArall  joins  is  smoothly 
plastered  over  for  part  of  its  length,  a  condition  which  implies  earlier 
construction.  The  inner  Avails  of  the  central  rooms  are  smooth;  the 
marks  of  reeds,  grasses,  and  rafters  indicate  the  former  existence  of 
floors  in  this  part  of  the  building.  The  roughness  of  the  plaster 
above  the  line  of  the  floor  of  the  second  story  indicates  that  there  was 
once  a  low  banquette  about  the  room.  The  I-OAV  of  holes  that  accom- 
modated the  beams  of  the  roof  of  the  third  story  is  not  flush  with  the 
top  of  the  Avail  but  somewhat  beloAv  it,  indicating  that  the  walls  there 
were  formerty  continued  into  a  low  parapet. 

FLOORS. 

The  floors  of  the  second  and  third  stories  served  as  ceilings  of  the 
first  and  second  stories,  respectively,  and  resemble  those  of  the  ordi- 
nary adobe  houses  of  the  Southwest.  The  beams  were  small  cedar 


6  CASA   GRANDE   RUIN,    ARIZONA. 

logs,  most  of  which  were  laid  across  the  width  of  the  room,  their 
extremities  being  inserted  for  support  in  the  walls,  or  in  some  in- 
stances laid  on  a  ledge  or  in  a  recess.  The  rows  of  holes  that  accom- 
modated the  ends  of  the  beams  are  to  be  seen  in  most  of  the  rooms; 
some  of  these  holes  are  not  strictly  in  line.  Each  roof  was  covered 
with  mud  firmly  packed  down  and  hardened  by  exposure  to  the  air 
and  to  the  constant  pressure  of  human  feet ;  in  places  appear  the 
prints  of  reeds  and  grasses  which  were  formerly  laid  on  the  rafters. 

DOORWAYS   AND   WINDOWS. 

The  external  entrances  into  most  of  the  rooms  of  each  story  of  Casa 
Grande  were  lateral,  and  there  is  reason  to  suppose  that  the  rooms 
in  which  no  openings  appear  in  the  side  walls  were  entered  by  hatch- 
wa}rs.  As  the  floors  have  all  disappeared,  it  is  impossible,  of  course, 
to  know  what  or  where  the  entrances  to  rooms  from  the  roof  were. 
In  the  lowest  story  was  a  doorway  about  midway  in  each  side.  Open- 
ings appear  in  about  the  corresponding  positions  in  the  stories  above, 
except  the  third,  where  the  only  entrance  to  be  seen  is  on  the  east 
side.  As  its  threshold  Avas  on  a  level  with  the  roof  of  the  second 
story,  this  doorway  probably  opened  on  the  roof  of  the  east  rooms 
in  that  story.  In  addition  to  these  external  openings  there  were 
passageways  between  the  north,  south,  east,  and  west  rooms,  in  the 
first  and  second  stories. 

All  the  doorways  were  constructed  on  the  same  pattern.  They 
averaged  about  2  feet  in  width,  and  some  were  slightly  narrower  at 
the  top  than  below.  This  decrease  in  width  may  be  a  survival  of  the 
times  when  the  conical,  or  beehive,  form  of  architecture  prevailed. 

The  masonry  over  the  doorways  is  now,  as  a  rule,  more  or  less 
broken,  but  it  still  shows  holes  for  the  insertion  of  logs  that  formed 
the  lintels,  which  were  arranged  in  series  one  above  another.  While 
most  of  the  lintels  which  supported  the  adobe  have  been  wrenched 
out,  some  remain,  holding  in  place  the  heavy  material  of  which  this 
part  of  the  wall  was  built. 

There  are  several  round  apertures  in  the  walls  that  may  have  served 
for  lookouts.  In  the  east  wall  of  the  central  room  to  the  left  of  the 
upper  doorway  are  two  such  openings,  each  about  4  inches  in  diameter, 
and  near  the  south  end  of  this  room  in  the  east  wall  is  another.  Two 
similar  apertures  are  found  in  the  west  wall  of  the  inner  room,  one  in 
the  upper  story  of  the  north  wall,  and  another  in  the  south  wall. 

Cosmos  Mindeleff  makes  the  following  statement : * 

The  frequency  of  openings  in  the  upper  or  third  story  and  their  absence  on 
lower  levels,  except  the  specially  arranged  openings  desi-ribed  later,  supports  the 
l.y|K.t)i<  sis  thai  none  of  the  rooms  except  the  middle  one  were  ever  more  than 
two  stories  high  and  that  the  wnll  remains  above  the  second  roof  level  represent 
<•:  low  paiMpel. 

CASA  GRANDE  MOUNDS. 
GENERAL  DESCRIPTION. 

It  is  evident  to  anyone  who  visits  Casa  Grande  that  the  historic 
structure  called  by  this  name  is  only  one  of  many  blocks  of  buildings 
which  formerly  existed  in  the  immediate  vicinity.  While  it  is  now 
difficult  to  determine  whether  all  these  structures  were  contempora- 


Thirteenth  Ann.  Kept.,  Bu.  Ethnol.,  p.  314. 


CASA   GRANDE    RUIN,    ARIZONA.  7 

neotisly  occupied,  it  is  evident  that  the  Casa  Grande  Group,  in  its 
prime,  was  no  mean  settlement.  Evidences  of  former  habitations 
cover  much  of  the  surface  of  the  reservation  and  extend  on  all  sides 
far  beyond  its  boundaries.  The  limits  of  this  prehistoric  settlement 
are  difficult  to  determine.  The  whole  plain  was  dotted  at  intervals 
with  houses  similar  to  those  of  Casa  Grande,  from  the  point  where  the 
Gila  leaves  the  mountains  to  its  junction  with  its  largest  tributary, 
the  Salt,  the  valley  of  which  is  also  marked  by  the  remains  of  many 
similar  prehistoric  buildings.  Not  all  the  mounds  on  the  Casa 
Grande  Reservation,  however,  contains  ruins  of  great  buildings;  many 
walled  structures,  formerly  homes  of  the  inhabitants,  have  fallen, 
leaving  but  slight  traces  of  their  existence — no  vestiges  of  walls 
above  the  surface  of  the  ground,  merely  broken  metates  or  frag- 
ments of  pottery  scattered  over  a  limited  area.  This  destruction  was 
inevitable,  owing  to  the  fragile  character  of  the  wattled  walls.  Even 
the  foundations  of  heavier  walls  of  many  of  the  buildings  are  buried 
in  the  debris  from  the  upper  courses. 

Two  types  of  mounds  occur  in  the  Casa  Grande  Group :  ( 1 )  Those 
containing  walls  of  houses  and  (2)  those  consisting  entirely  of  earth 
and  debris  not  including  buried  walls.  The  former  are  composed  of 
earth  or  clay,  which  has  fallen  from  the  Avails,  burying  the  founda- 
tions, augmented  by  sand  blown  by  the  winds.  Mounds  of  the  sec- 
ond class  are  composed  solely  of  debris;  when  opened,  some  of  these 
show  stratification,  as  if  formed  of  mud  or  soil  deposited  artificially 
on  them  from  time  to  time  in  clearing  out  reservoirs  or  making 
other  excavations,  while  others  contain  ashes  and  fragments  of  pottery 
scattered  through  the  soil  from  the  surface  to  a  considerable  depth. 
Certain  of  these  mounds  are  devoid  of  features  suggesting  artificial 
origin. 

Mounds  of  the  first  class  admit  of  still  further  classification  into 
two  kinds:  (a)  Those  arranged  in  clusters,  each  resting  on  a  plat- 
form, bounded  by  a  surrounding  wall — these  are  remains  of  com- 
pounds; (b)  compact  blocks  of  rooms,  each  without  a  surrounding 
wall,  known  as  clan  houses.  While  the  name  Casa  Grande  is  here 
applied  to  the  main  building  of  one  compound  (A),  the  designation 
Casa  Grande  Group  of  mounds  includes  all  the  clusters  of  adjacent 
mounds  situated  on  the  reservation.  For  niany  }^ears  the  main  build- 
ing and  a  few  outlying  walls  were  the  only  structures  projecting 
above  the  surface,  but  now  it  is  known  that  the  historic  Casa  Grande 
is  but  one  of  many  aboriginal  buildings  in  this  neighborhood.  Exca- 
vations have  established  the  fact  that  many  mounds  of  the  Casa 
Grande  Group  are  remains  of  former  houses,  and  that  there  are  as 
many  others  composed  of  the  debris  of  former  habitations. 

For  convenience  of  study  and  reference  the1  large  walled  inclosures 
constituting  the  first  class  of  mounds,  called  compounds,  are  desig- 
nated A,  B,  C,  D,  and  E.  These  will  be  considered  in  order. 

COMPOUND  A. 

Compound  A  is  not  only  the  largest  of  the  Casa  Grande  compounds, 
but  is  also  the  most  important,  containing  as  it  does  the  historic  ruin 
and  a  few  other  walls  of  rooms  standing  above  ground  when  excava- 
tions began. 


CASA   GRANDE   RUIN,   ARIZONA. 

M  O  M  T  H 


CASA   GRANDE   BUIN,   ARIZONA.  9 

The  dimensions  of  Compound  A  are  as  follows :  The  length  of  the 
west  wall  is  419  feet;  of  the  east  wall,  420  feet;  of  the  north  wall, 
223.3  feet ;  and  of  the  south  wall,  215  feet.  The  west  wall  bears  north 
3°  00'  east;  the  south  wall,  south  81°  35'  east.  The  west  wall  of  the 
main  building  bears  north  4°  30'  east,  or  south  4°  30'  west,  i.  e., 
1°  30'  out  of  parallel  with  the  compound. 

The  following  buildings,  plazas,  and  courts  have  been  excavated  in 
Compound  A : 

(1)  Southwest  building;  (2)  northeast  building;  (3)  rooms  on 
west  wall;  (4)  six  ceremonial  rooms ;  (5)  central  building;  (6)  Font's 
room;  (7)  rooms  between  Casa  Grande  and  Font's  room;  (8)  rooms 
adjoining  ceremonial  rooms  on  north  wall;  (9)  northwest  room; 
(W)  room  near  east  wall;  (11)  northeast  plaza;  (12)  central  plaza; 
(13)  east  plaza;  (14)  southwest  plaza;  (15)  south  court. 

The  most  important  block  of  rooms  is  of  course  (16)  Casa  Grande. 

SOUTHWEST    BUILDING. 

Father  Font  wrote  of  Casa  Grande  as  follows : 

The  house  Casa  Grande  forms  an  oblong  square  facing  to  the  four  cardinal 
points,  east,  west,  north,  and  south,  and  round  about  it  there  are  ruins  indi- 
cating a  fence  or  wall,  which  surrounded  the  house  and  other  buildings,  par- 
ticularly in  the  corners,  where  it  appears  there  has  been  some  edifice  like  an 
interior  castle  or  watchtower,  for  in  the  angle  which  faces  toward  the  south- 
west there  stands  a  ruin  with  its  divisions  and  an  upper  story. 

This  southwest  building  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  "  other  build- 
ings "  referred  to. 

In  Font's  plan  of  Compound  A,  a  single  chambered  room  is  repre- 
sented in  the  southwest  corner.  Bart-let t  gave  a  plan  of  the  cluster 
of  rooms  in  this  angle,  but  neither  Bartlett's  nor  Font's  plans  are 
complete,  for  there  are  in  reality  six  rooms  in  this  corner  of  the 
compound,  not  counting  an  adjacent  rectangular  room  separated  from 
this  cluster  by  a  court.  Several  later  authors  have  mentioned  and 
figured  these  two  fragments  of  walls  standing  above  a  mound  south- 
west of  the  main  building,  and  one  or  two  have  suggested  that  they 
were  formerly  connected  with  Casa  Grande  by  walls. 

NORTHEAST   BUILDING. 

The  first  historic  building,  Casa  Grande,  was  not  the  largest  in 
Compound  A.  The  combined  length  of  the  six  ceremonial  rooms  is 
double  that  of  the  main  building,  although  their  width  is  much  less. 
A  building  standing  northeast  of  Font's  room  is  the  largest  yet 
excavated  and  contains  many  more  rooms,  some  of  which  are  larger 
than  any  in  the  historic  building. 

The  arrangement  of  the  rooms  in  the  northeast  building  is  differ- 
ent from  that  of  Casa  Grande,  but  is  typical  of  others,  especially  the 
extra-mural  clan  houses.  This  similarity  would  lead  one  to  suspect 
that  this  building  was  not,  like  the  main  building,  a  ceremonial,  but 
rather  a  residential  house.  The  typical  form,  to  which  reference  is 
made,  is  that  of  a  carpenter's  try-square,  or  that  of  two  sides  of  a  rec- 
tangle— a  form  that  reappears  in  the  most  southerly  situated  of  the 
two  clan  houses  on  the  east  and  the  cluster  of  rooms  in  the  southwest 
corner  of  Compound  B.  The  six  ceremonial  rooms,  together  with 

92960°— 13 2 


10  CASA   GRANDE    RUIN,   ARIZONA. 

those  extending  eastward  from  the  most  northerly  of  these  along  the 
inner  surface  of  the  north  wall,  make  also  a  group  of  the  same  try- 
square  shape.  Since  one  arm  of  the  northeast  cluster  is  formed  by 
the  east  wall  of  the  compound,  it  follows  that  this  arm  extends  ap- 
proximately east  and  west,  and  necessarily  the  other  arm  of  the  try- 
square  lies  at  right  angles,  or  north  and  south. 

ROOMS   ON    THE    WEST    WALL. 

Between  the  cluster  of  rooms  occupying  the  southwest  angle  of 
the  compound  and  the  single  ik  bastion  "  or  u  castle  "  at  the  north- 
west corner,  there  are  several  rooms,  the  Avails  of  which  appeared 
when  the  soil  was  removed  from  the  inner  or  east  side  of  the  west 
wall. 

The  most  characteristic  of  these  dependent  rooms,  G,  is  separated 
by  a  narrow  court  from  the  northern  wall  of  the  southwest  cluster. 
Unfortunately,  one  corner  of  this  room  was  cut  down  before  its  ex- 
istence was  detected,  but  wherever  its  four  walls  were  revealed  they 
indicated  a  room  of  large  size.  In  one  corner  there  stood  a  large  vase, 
too  fragile  to  remove,  which  was  consequently  left  in  the  place  where 
found.  The  Casa  Grande-Florence  stage  route  formerly  crossed  the 
compound  over  the  corner  of  this  room  directly  above  this  vase. 

On  the  west  side  of  Casa  Grande,  or  directly  between  the  main 
building  and  the  west  Avail  of  the  compound,  there  Avere  excavated 
several  rooms,  H,  I,  and  J,  the  Avails  of  Avhich  are  low  and  single- 
storied.  One  of  these  rooms,  J,  is  situated  on  the  nortliAvest  corner 
of  the  ruin,  and  has  its  west  wall  continuous  with  that  Avhich  forms 
the  retaining  wall  of  the  north  terrace.  There  are  also  two  rooms 
on  the  southwestern  corner  which  bear  the  same  relation  to  the  ter- 
race wall  of  the  south  side.  These  two  are  separated  by  a  court  and 
have  low  walls.  There  does  not  seem  to  haA^e  been  a  building  directly 
west  of  the  main  ruin  and  no  sign  of  a  terrace  now  remains  on  that 
side.  The  exact  connections  of  the  rooms  along  the  west  Avail,  south- 
west of  the  main  ruin,  with  those  on  the  southwest  corner  can  be 
made  clear  only  by  continuation  of  the  work  in  the  unexcavated  part 
of  the  compound.  As  shown  in  the  ground  plan,  there  are  walls 
standing  in  that  part  of  the  compound ;  there  is  also  a  level  space 
called  the  southwest  plaza,  situated  between  the  Avail  of  the  most 
southerly  room  at  the  southwest  angle  of  the  main  ruin  and  the 
northern  wall  of  the  room  on  the  west  wall  adjacent  to  the  building 
in  the  southAvest  angle. 

SIX  CEREMONIAL  ROOMS. 

Linear  arrangement  of  rooms  is  exceptional  in  this  compound. 
This  row  extends  from  the  northeast  corner  of  the  main  building 
to  the  north  wall  of  the  compound,  Avith  which  the  most  northern 
room  is  united.  The  line  of  these  rooms  is  not  parallel  Avith  either 
the  east  or  west  walls  of  the  compound,  and  their  longest  measure- 
ments vary,  although  the  Avidths  of  the  rooms  are  about  uniform. 
Although  the  connection  which  formerly  bound  these  rooms  to  the 
main  building  lias  been  destroyed,  there  is  no  doubt  that  such  a  union 
once  existed  and  that  they  were  probably  united  to  a  solid  terrace, 
which  Ave  must  suppose  existed  on  the  north,  east,  and  south  sides  of 
the  main  building. 


CASA   GRANDE   RUIN,   ARIZONA.  11 

Before  excavations  were  begun,  the  row  of  ceremonial  rooms  was 
indicated  only  by  a  ridge  of  earth  extending  from  the  northeast  cor- 
ner of  the  main  building  northward.  It  is  evident  that  the  roof  of 
these  rooms  was  on  a  level  with  the  floor  of  the  lowest  rooms  of  Casa 
Grande,  which  communicated  with  the  roofs  of  these  ceremonial 
rooms  on  the  north,  east,  and  south  by  means  of  the  basal  terrace,  of 
which  mention  has  been  made.  In  this  way  one  could  pass  directly 
into  these  rooms  through  the  doorways  in  the  middle  of  the  sides  of 
the  main  building. 

CENTER   BUILDING. 

When  work  was  begun  on  Compound  A  the  center  building  was  a 
low.  regular  mound  situated  near  the  southeast  angle  of  the  main 
building,  occupying  a  somewhat  similar  relation  to  that  corner  that 
the  first  of  the  six  ceremonial  rooms  does  to  the  northeast  angle. 
This  mound  was  opened  to  the  base,  revealing  several  intersecting 
walls  and  rooms.  When  one  stands  at  the  north  wall  of  the  com- 
pound and  runs  his  eye  along  the  east  side  of  the  six  ceremonial 
rooms,  it  is  found  that  the  middle  wall  of  the  center  building  is  in 
the  line  of  the  eye,  which  also  follows  the  supposititious  retaining 
wall  of  the  east  terrace  of  the  main  building  and  the  east  boundary 
wall  of  the  southwest  plaza.  The  southeast  corner  of  the  main  build- 
ing, Casa  Grande,  is  broken  in  much  the  same  way  as  the  northeast 
angle  near  the  six  ceremonial  rooms,  possibly  from  the  same  cause. 


Mange  states  that  Father  Kino  said  mass  in  the  Casas  Grandes, 
and  it  is  generally  believed  that  this  ceremony  was  performed  in  one. 
of  the  rooms  of  Casa  Grande.  As  there  were  at  the  time  of  Kino's 
visit  several  other  rooms  in  the  group,  some  of  which  were  more 
commodious,  it  is  interesting  to  speculate  on  the  possibility  of  one  of 
these  being  that  referred  to. 

Just  east  of  Casa  Grande  was  a  large  building,  formerly  two  stories 
high,  which  was  apparently  in  a  fair  state  of  preservation  when 
Father  Font  visited  it,  in  1775.  So  accurately  has  this  zealous  priest 
described  and  mapped  this  room,  that  it  is  called  after  him  and  is 
referred  to  as  "  Font's  room  "  in  this  article. 

Mange  states  in  his  diary  that — 

a  crossbow  shot  farther  on  12  other  houses  are  seen  half  tumbled  clown,  a  No 
with  thick  walls  and  all  with  roofs  burnt  except  one  room  beneath  one  house, 
with  round  beams,  smooth  and  not  thick,  which  appear  to  be  cedar  or  savin. 
and  over  them  rush  reeds  very  similar  to  them  and  n  layer  of  mortar  and  hard 
clay,  making  a  ceiling  or  story  of  very  peculiar  character. 

Font,  70  years  after,  wrote: 

In  front  of  the  east  door,  separated  from  the  casa,  there  is  another  building 
with  dimensions  from  north  to  south  26  feet  and  from  east  to  west  18.  exclusive 
of  the  thickness  of  the  walls. 

Directly  west  of  Font's  room  is  a  passageway  communicating  with 
the  central  plaza.  The  floor  of  this  passageway  is  hard  and  very  com- 
pact, and  on  one  side  there  were  excavated  an  eagle  skeleton  and 
bones  of  several  rabbits. 


12  CASA    GRANDE    RUIN,    ARIZONA. 

ROOMS   BETWEEN    CASA   GRANDE  AND   FONT'S   ROOM. 

East  of  Casa  Grande  there  were  several  large  rooms  with  low, 
massive  walls,  evidently  of  one  story.  It  would  appear  that  in 
ancient  times  these  rooms  joined  the  terrace  at  the  base  of  Casa 
Grande,  and  we  may  suppose  that  their  roofs  were  on  the  level  with 
the  floor  of  the  lowest  room  of  the  historic  building.  Apparently 
these  rooms  were  not  all  constructed  at  the  same  time,  the  two  at  the 
north  showing  evidences  of  being  older  than  the  southern  pair. 

One  of  these  rooms,  C,  was  found  to  contain  much  debris,  consist- 
ing of  pottery  fragments,  charred  basketry,  cloth,  maize,  mesquite 
beans,  marine  shells,  and  other  objects.  It  appears  to  have  been  a 
dumping  place,  and  as  it  has  every  appearance  of  having  once  been  a 
room,  we  may  suppose  that  it  was  deserted  while  some  of  the  other 
rooms  of  Compound  A  were  still  inhabited. 

ROOMS  ADJOINING  THE  MOST  NORTHERLY  OF  THE  SIX  CEREMONIAL  ROOMS. 

Adjoining  the  most  northerly  of  the  six  ceremonial  rooms  on  its 
east  side  there  lies  a  room  or  court,  G,  surrounded  by  walls,  which 
appears  to  have  been  without  a  roof.  Its  floor  is  hard,  as  if  made  so 
by  the  tramp  of  many  feet;  its  walls  are  massive,  with  smooth  sur- 
faces. A  walled-up  doorway,  recalling  a  similar  feature  in  the  west 
room  of  the  main  building,  occurs  in  the  wall  separating  this  room 
from  the  most  northerly  of  the  six  ceremonial  rooms. 

NORTHWEST   ROOM. 

This  room  is  single-storied,  with  free  walls  on  two  sides,  the  other 
sides  being  the  walls  of  the  compound.  An  entrance 'into  the  com- 
pound on  the  north  side  is  situated  near  this  corner  room. 

The  excavations  revealed  many  ceremonial  objects  on  the  floor, 
which  would  appear  to  indicate  that  the  room  was  used  for  other 
than  secular  purposes.  Household  utensils,  as  grinding  stones,  which 
would  be  expected  in  a  living  chamber,  were  absent.  No  soot  or 
other  evidences  of  a  fire  were  observed  on  the  walls,  and  there  were 
no  charred  logs  or  rafters. 

ROOMS  NEAR  EAST  WALL. 

South  of  the  plaza  which  lies  to  the  east  of  the  two-storied  build- 
ing known  as  Font's  room  are  situated  the  remains  of  some  massive 
walls  which  formed  a  large  square  inclosure  separated  from  the  east 
wall  only  by  a  narrow  passage. 

This  building  was  evidently  formerly  one  story  high.  Its  size  is 
so  great  that  it  is  doubtful  whether  or  not  it  was  roofed,  but  if  it  had 
a  roof  it  would  be  one  of  the  largest  rooms  of  Compound  A. 

NORTHEAST  PLAZA. 

The  situation  of  this  plaza  and  the  fact  that  no  doorways  opened 
into  it  or  terraced  roof's  looked  down  upon  it  imply  that  it  was  not  a 
favorite  one  for  ceremonial  dances  or  spectacular  performances.  As 
the  walls  about  it  are,  as  a  rule,  massive,  the  plaza  may  have  served 


CA.SA   GRANDE   RUIN,   ARIZONA.  13 

as  a  safe  place  to  which  to  flee  for  protection,  and  it  is  probable  that 
cabins,  not  unlike  the  Pima  huts  or  the  last  generation,  were  tempo- 
rarily erected  in  this  and  other  plazas. 

CENTRAL   PLAZA. 

The  centrally  placed,  and  on  that  account  probably  the  most  sacred, 
plaza  of  Compound  A  is  surrounded  by  buildings,  the  roofs  of  which 
no  doubt  served  as  elevations  from  which  spectators  could  witness  the 
sacred  dances  and  games.  The  floor  of  this  plaza  was  solid,  appar- 
ently hardened  by  constant  tramping  of  feet.  The  labor  involved 
in  cutting  down  the  earth  in  this  plaza  to  the  former  floor  was  con- 
siderable, it  being  necessary  to  remove  many  cubic  yards  of  grout 
that  had  fallen  from  the  thick  walls  of  the  northeast  building  and  the 
six  ceremonial  rooms.  The  southwest  corner  of  the  plaza  was  not  ex- 
cavated, because  of  a  large  stake  to  which  is  attached  the  iron  rod 
that  serves  as  a  guy  for  the  northeast  corner  of  the  roof  built  over  the 
ruin. 

The  plaza  appears  to  have  been  used  as  a  burial  place,  for  a  human 
skeleton  was  dug  out  of  the  floor  near  its  southeast  corner,  but  the 
body  might  have  been  buried  after  the  compound  had  been  deserted. 

There  were  excavated  from  this  plaza,  near  the  passageway  west  of 
the  tall  wall  of  Font's  room,  the  skeleton  of  an  eagle  and  several 
rabbit  bones.  It  was  probably  customary  at  Casa  Grande  to  domes- 
ticate eagles  for  their  feathers  and  to  keep  them  in  confinement. 

EAST  PLAZA. 

This  plaza  was  almost  wholly  surrounded  by  rooms,  and  from  its 
position  was  evidently  one  of  the  most  popular  of  all  the  inclosures  of 
this  kind.  From  the  roof  of  the  main  building  one  could  probably 
Jook  over  Font's  room  into  this  plaza.  Although  the  plaza  is  a  small 
one,  its  eastern  position  would  give  it  considerable  ceremonial  im- 
portance. The  accumulated  earth  was  cut  down  to  the  original  level 
and  removed  outside  the  compound.  There  does  not  seem  to  be  suffi- 
cient evidence  that  there  was  an  eastern  entrance  way  to  this  plaza, 
although  it  was  looked  for  when  excavations  were  made. 

SOUTHWEST  PLAZA. 

This  plaza  adjoins  the  west  wall  of  the  compound,  extending  from 
the  rooms  southwest  of  the  main  ruin  to  the  first  of  the  cluster  of 
rooms  in  the  southwest  angle.  Although  large  quantities  of  earth 
were  removed  from  this  inclosure,  it  has  not  been  wholly  leveled  to 
the  floor,  especially  on  the  east  side,  near  a  wall  which  is  a  continua- 
tion of  the  rooms  at  the  southwest  corner  of  the  main  ruin.  This 
wall  was  exposed  along  its  whole  length,  but  showed  no  rooms  on  the 
west  side,  although  probably  there  are  several  on  the  east,  or  unex- 
cavated,  side. 

SOUTH  COURT. 

A  long  court  extends  across  the  whole  south  end  of  the  compound 
from  the  southwest  cluster  of  rooms  to  the  east  wall.  Its  form  sug- 
gests a  ball  court  or  course  for  foot  races.  In  connection  with  the 


14  CASA   GRANDE   RUIN,   ARIZONA. 

former  suggestion  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  several  stone  balls, 
such  as  were  used,  according  to  Pima  legends,  in  a  game  of  kicking 
ball,  were  found  in  this  court;  this  game  is  still  practiced  by  the 
Pimas.  Near  one  end  there  was  excavated  a  square  perforated  stone, 
recalling  that  through  which  balls  were  thrown  in  the  Nahuatl  game 
of  pelote. 

As  will  be  seen  from  the  accompanying  plan  of  Compound  A,  the 
whole  inclosure  has  not  been  completely  excavated,  but  enough  debris 
has  been  removed  to  show  its  general  character.  There  are  no  large 
unexcavated  mounds  remaining  in  this  compound,  and  the  level 
space  in  the  southeastern  part  was  either  a  plaza  or,  more  probably, 
the  site  of  many  habitations,  whose  fragile  walls  have  fallen,  raising 
the  surface  to  a  uniform  height.  On  this  supposition  we  should  look 
here  for  the  remains  of  houses  in  which  the  majority  of  the  people 
lived. 

From  the  study  of  Compound  A  we  can  get  an  idea  of  the  structural 
character  of  one  of  these  Gila  Valley  prehistoric  settlements.  The 
people  lived  in  clusters  of  houses  surrounded  by  a  common  wall,  which 
inclosed  also  massive  houses  that  served  as  temples  or  as  citadels  for 
protection.  Regarding  the  sociologic  condition,  whether  each  com- 
pound housed  and  protected  many  families  unrelated  by  blood,  or 
clans  related  to  one  another,  can  not  be  determined  from  the  infor- 
mation available.  That  the  compounds  may  have  been  built  at 
different  times  appears  probable,  but  it  can  hardly  be  supposed  that 
one  compound  was  completely  deserted  at  one  time  and  that  the  inhab- 
itants might  have  moved  to  another  site  a  few  hundred  feet  away.  If 
these  compounds  were  inhabited  at  the  same  time,  it  may  be  readily 
supposed  that  there  was  considerable  intermarriage  of  clans  and 
therefore  intermingling  of  blood.  As  no  known  legends  speak  of 
more  than  one  chief  of  Casa  Grande,  the  supposition  is  that  the 
inhabitants  recognized  only  one  head.  There  is  ground  for  the  belief 
that  the  age  of  Compound  A  is  not  so  great  as  that  of  Compound  B, 
although  it  is  of  considerable  antiquity.  Casa  Grande  itself  seems  to 
have  been  constructed  at  different  times,  as  it  shows  evidences  of 
growth  by  a  series  of  additions.  There  are  no  known  data  by  which 
its  age  can  be  computed  and  none  to  determine  which  compound  was 
the  last  to  be  deserted.  It  is  known  that  Compound  A  was  a  ruin  in 
1694,  but  from  the  earliest  accounts  nothing  can  be  ascertained  which 
would  show  how  long  before  that  date  the  ancients  occupied  the 
buildings.  The  indications  afforded  by  the  rate  of  wear  of  the  walls 
since  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  lead  to  the  belief  that 
a  few  generations  before  that  time  Casa  Grande  was  a  populous 
settlement.  f 

The  orientation  of  the  surrounding  walls  of  the  compounds  and  of 
the  buildings  within  them  is  well  marked,  this  feature  appearing  very 
significantly  in  Compound  A.  The  greatest  length  of  all  the  com- 
pounds is  north  and  south.  The  doorways  of  the  buildings,  when 
practicable,  open  toward  the  east. 

In  certain  walls  is  found  evidence  contradicting  the  theory  that 
they  were  built  by  stamping  caliche  into  bottomless  baskets  or  boxes, 
as  generally  taught,  and  as  indicated  by  the  joints  on  the  west  side 
of  the  main  ruin.  At  various  places  in  the  walls  may  still  be  seen 
masses  of  clay  patted  into  shape  by  human  hands,  the  imprints  of 


CASA  GRANDE  RUIN,  ARIZONA.  15 

which  are  clear.  Some  of  these  masses,  which  are  just  large  enough 
to  have  been  handled  by  one  workman,  were  evidently  dumped  on 
the  wall  and  subsequently  were  not  so  stamped  that,  they  lost  their 
original  shape. 

COMPOUND  B. 

When  work  on  it  began  Compound  B  consisted  of  two  mounds 
resting  on  a  platform,  the  bases  around  both  mounds  being  so  filled 
in  with  earth  that  the  surrounding  wall  formed  the  edge  of  a  plat- 
form or  terrace.  The  most  extensive  of  these  inclosed  mounds 
(Pyramid  B)  occupied  the  southwest  corner  of  the  platform.  The 
largest  and  most  massive  (Pyramid  A)  has  a  flat  top,  from  which 
the  visitor  can  see,  in  clear  weather,  the  cupola  of  the  courthouse  in 
Florence,  12  miles  away. 

Compound  B  is  840  feet  northeast  of  Compound  A.  Its  excavated 
surrounding  wall  on  the  east  and  north  sides,  respectively,  meas- 
ures 299  feet  and  180  feet;  the  west  side  is  297  feet  long  and  the 
south  side  167  feet.  The  compound  is  oriented  approximately  north 
and  south. 

When  the  excavation  of  Compound  B  began  no  part  of  the  sur- 
rounding wall  was  visible,  its  existence  being  indicated  only  by  a 
slight  rise  above  the  level  of  the  surrounding  plain.  The  first  work 
attempted  was  the  determination  of  the  angles  or  corners  of  this 
compound.  This  work  brought  to  light  a  massive  wall  surrounding 
the  whole  inclosure.  It  is  evident  from  the  amount  of  debris  that 
had  accumulated  on  the  outside  of  this  wall  that  it  must  have  been 
formerly  at  least  7  feet  high.  The  accumulated  earth  was  removed 
to  a  depth  of  4  feet,  the  present  average  height  of  the  wall.  This 
wall  was  found  to  be  much  higher  on  the  west  side  than  on  the  east, 
south,  or  north,  and  in  order  to  obtain  a  level  for  the  drain  con- 
structed around  the  compound  to  carry  away  the  surplus  water,  it 
was  necessary  to  remove  debris  on  the  west  wall  to  a  depth  of  at 
least  9  feet.  Below  that  depth  many  circular  depressions,  similar  to 
those  used  by  Pima  in  mixing  mortar  for  the  walls,  were  found,  and 
it  is  believed  that  the  former  level  of  the  foundation  of  the  compound 
was  reached  on  that  side. 

None  of  the  outside  walls  of  Compound  B  laid  bare  by  excavation 
were  found  to  be  straight  and  none  were  exactly  perpendicular. 
The  thickness  of  the  surrounding  wall  varies;  in  some  places  it  is 
as  much  as  5  feet  and  is,  on  the  average,  about  3J  feet.  Outside  the 
wall,  about  7  feet  from  the  former  foundation,  was  dug  a  shallow 
ditch  surrounding  the  whole  compound.  This  ditch  was  continued 
into  deeper  ones  extending  from  the  north  west  and  southwest  corners 
in  order  to  carry  all  superfluous  water  from  the  foundations  of  the 
walls  into  a  natural  depression  some  50  feet  from  the  compound. 

A  subterranean  room  provided  with  a  cemented  floor,  walls,  and 
fireplace  was  discovered  near  the  northeast  corner,  under  the  foun- 
dation of  the  exterior  wall.1  This  was  evidently  a  pit-house  inhabited 
before  the  massive  wall  had  been  constructed  and  antedating  the 
structures  built  above  it.  Traces  of  similar  subterranean  rooms  are 
found  within  the  compound  near  the  same  corner. 

irrhe  diagonals  of  none  of  the  rooms  at  Casa  Grande  are  exactly  equal  in  length. 


200  FT. 


CLAN  HOUSE 


CLAN  HOUSE: 

-3 


92960°— 13.      (Pages   16-17.) 


GENERAL  PLAN  OF  CAJ 


CLAN  HOUSE 

i 


rBANDE  GROUP  OF  RUINS. 


18 


CASA   GRANDE   RUIN,   ARIZONA. 


"I 

I 


6  s  r 


d 


CASA   GRANDE   RUIN,   ARIZONA.  19 

The  outside  wall  of  Compound  B  was  constructed,  like  that  of 
Casa  Grande  proper,  of  huge  blocks  of  natural  cement,  which  were 
made  where  they  now  rest,  the  marks  of  successive  blocks  being 
visible  at  several  points  where  the  union  is  not  perfect.  Evidences 
that  this  wall  had  been  repaired  by  ancient  builders  are  seen  in 
many  places,  and  it  appears  that  the  form  and  direction  of  the 
original  wall  have  been  modified  by  its  enlargement  at  the  southeast 
corner.  Within  the  inclosure  surrounded  by  the  massive  exterior 
wall  were  found  evidences  of  two  kinds  of  buildings:  First,  those 
made  of  cement  blocks,  characteristically  massive;  second,  those 
having  fragile  walls  supported  by  upright  posts.  Some  of  the  walls 
of  buildings  of  the  former  class  still  remain  upright,  but  those  of 
the  latter  have  fallen,  their  positions  being  indicated  only  by  decayed 
stumps.  To  the  first  type  belong  also  well-plastered  floors,  in  which 
are  present  circular  depressions  that  served  as  fireplaces.  If  we 
interpret  buildings  of  the  first  type  as  temples  used  for  ceremonial 
purposes,  the  fragile-walled  buildings  may  be  regarded  as  habitations 
of  the  people  comparable  with  those  in  which  the  Pima  have  lived 
since  known  to  history. 

PYRAMID  A. 

The  two  large  pyramidal  elevations  occupying  much  of  the  in- 
closure of  Compound  B  were  found  on  excavation  to  be  remarkable 
structures,  suggesting  a  style  of  architecture  common  in  Mexico.  It 
appears  that  the  larger  and  most  northerly  of  these  structures,  desig- 
nated on  the  map  as  A,  was  a  pyramid,  formerly  marked  by  the 
presence  of  two  or  three  terraces,  the  massive  walls  of  which  still 
rise  at  one  point  to  a  height  of  more  than  10  feet.  The  top  of  this 
pyramid  is  square  and  level.  A  deep  excavation  made  in  its  north 
end  revealed  a  long  chamber,  suggesting  the  north  room  of  Casa 
Grande.  On  the  southwest  side  of  this  pyramid  shallow  excavations 
revealed  several  cemented  floors  one  below  another,  and  vertical 
walls  indicated  by  decayed  posts  which  formerly  supported  them; 
each  of  these  floors  contains  a  well-made  fire  pit.  The  shape  of  the 
rooms,  as  shown  by  the  positions  of  the  stumps,  was  rectangular;  the 
length  was  double  the  width.  A  doorway,  indicated  by  the  absence 
of  upright  logs  from  one  side,  was  just  in  front  of  the  fireplace, 
which  itself  was  situated,  not  in  the  center  of  the  room,  but  slightly 
nearer  one  side.  The  existence  of  these  floors  or  evidences  of  rooms 
situated  one  above  the  other  would  seem  to  indicate  that  a  consider- 
able portion  of  this  pyramid  was  formed  by  accumulations  of  earth 
resulting  from  the  decay  of  habitations.  The  supposition  is  that  this 
accumulation  continued  through  a  long  period  and  that  new  habi- 
tations were  built  on  the  debris  of  those  below.  Excavations  ex- 
tended in  the  southwest  angle  of  the  pyramid  to  a  level  with  the  out- 
side plazas  showed  that  there  were  in  this  mound  seven  layers  of 
floors,  indicating  by  the  above  theory  seven  successive  constructions 
or  times  of  habitation. 

PYRAMID  B. 

Pyramid  B,  which  is  situated  in  the  southwest  section  of  Com- 
pound B,  is  separated  in  part  from  the  west  wall  of  the  compound 
by  a  plaza  100  feet  long  by  50  feet  wide.  The  pyramidal  form  so 


20 

well  seen  in  Pyramid  A  does  not  appear  in  Pyramid  B,  the  shape 
of  which  is  try-square,  a  mound  extending  north  and  south  with  a 
western  extension.  On  the  top  of  this  mound,  as  on  Pyramid  A, 
were  found  floors  of  houses  whose  upright  walls  were  indicated  by 
decayed  posts;  below  were  other  floors,  resembling  those  found  on 
top  of  Pyramid  A.  There  were  remains  of  a  shrine  at  the  southwest 
corner  of  the  top  of  Pyramid  B ;  in  it  were  found  fragments  of  copper 
and  many  strangely  formed  stones.  The  north  end  of  Pyramid  B, 
extending  toward  the  west  wall  of  the  compound  and  forming  the 
north  wall  of  the  southwest  plaza,  was  occupied  by  two  rooms,  the 
massive  walls  of  which  are  8  feet  high  and  average  4  feet  thick. 
The  ground  plan  of  these  rooms  resembles  in  shape  a  try-square. 
Their  common  west  wall  is  separated  from  the  west  wall  of  the  com- 
pound by  a  passageway,  through  which  one  formerly  could  enter  the 
southwest  plaza  from  the  central  plaza.1  The  walls  show  no  indi- 
cation of  a  side  entrance,  and  no  proof  was  obtained  that  the  rooms 
were  roofed.  The  most  logical  supposition  is  that  they  were  entered 
from  the  top  of  the  adjacent  mound  by  means  of  ladders  or  notched 
logs.  Each  of  these  rooms  had  a  fireplace  near  the  middle  of  the 
room,  well-plastered  floors,  and  vertical  walls;  they  have  no  lateral 
openings  for  communication  with  each  other. 

In  one  of  these  rooms  was  found  a  mass  of  caliche  about  the  size 
of  a  small  keg,  which  had  a  cavity  in  one  end,  while  the  opposite 
extremity  was  rounded.  This  object  resembled  a  rude  stove  or  oven,8 
the  cavity  being  used  formerly  for  storage  of  fuel.  A  somewhat 
similar  object  was  found  buried  under  or  near  the  west  wall  of  Com- 
pound C.  The  other  objects  found  in  these  rooms  are  evidently  cere- 
monial and  perhaps  served  somewhat  the  same  purpose  as  those  found 
in  the  large  rooms  of  Casa  Grande. 

In  the  floor  of  what  appears  to  have  been  either  a  room  or  a  small 
plaza,  on  top  of  Pyramid  B  at  its  southwest  corner,  was  found  a 
shallow  pit  or  depression  about  a  foot  in  diameter,  which  had  a  hemi- 
spherical cover  made  of  caliche ;  this  cover,  which  was  perforated  by 
two  holes,  fitted  accurately  into  the  depression.  The  purpose  of  this 
pit  and  cover  was  not  ascertained,  nothing  being  found  that  afforded 
any  clue  to  their  use. 

ROOMS  EAST    OF    PYRAMID    B. 

The  inclosure  east  of  Pyramid  B  and  south  of  Pyramid  A  forms 
a  large  plaza,  in  the  southern  part  of  which  are  several  buildings 
of  massive  proportions.  These  have  been  excavated  to  their  floors, 
which  are  well  preserved.  Two  of  these  rooms  are  especially  note- 
worthy. These  were  formerly  a  single  story  in  height  and  show  no 
evidence  of  ever  having  been  higher.  Although  separated  by  a 
narrow  court,  or  passageway,  both  rooms  open  into  the  same  court 
through  well-made  doorways,  the  jambs  and  thresholds  of  which  are 
smooth  and  well  preserved.  When  these  rooms  were  uncovered,  it 
was  found  that  their  floors  were  made  of  hardened  adobe  upon  which, 
when  first  brought  to  light,,  could  be  seen  impressions  of  matting  laid 
upon  them  when  the  room  was  inhabited.  This  would  seem  to  show 

1  These  narrow  passageways  exist  also  In  Compound  A,  as  between  Font's  room  and  the 
massive-walled  structures  east  of  the  main  building. 
'Like  the  pits  the  Hopi  use  in  baking  their  ceremonial  pudding  (pigume). 


ARIZONA.  21 

that  the  ancient  people  of  Casa  Grande  used  a  kind  of  sleeping  mat 
similar  to  that  employed  by  the  Pima  Indians.  The  preservation  of 
these  impressions  for  so  long  a  time  is  certainly  remarkable. 

The  walls  of  these  rooms  are  covered  with  several  layers  of  smooth 
plaster,  each  very  carefully  applied.  The  size  and  shape  of  the  rooms 
lead  to  the  belief  that  they  were  connected  with  ceremonal  rather  than 
with  domestic  life.  In  the  open  places  adjoining  these  chambers  the 
former  existence  of  rectangular  rooms  is  indicated  by  rows  of  holes  in 
which  were  found  decayed  fragments  of  wooden  posts  that  had  for- 
merly supported  the  fragile  walls,  long  since  fallen.  Where  possible, 
these  were  carefully  replaced  by  new  logs.  The  number  of  these 
habitations  could  not  be  determined.  Their  floors  may  be  traced  by 
the  remaining  cement,  hardened  by  the  tramping  of  many  feet,  but 
no  fireplaces  were  found  in  these  floors  or  in  the  walled  buildings  east 
of  Pyramid  B. 

SOUTHEAST   PLAZA. 

In  the  southeast  plaza  of  Compound  B  evidences  of  several  rooms 
were  brought  to  light,  although  for  the  greater  part  their  once  mas- 
sive walls  were  very  much  broken  down.  Here  were  found  indi- 
cations of  fragile-walled  rooms,  their  floors  situated  one  above  another, 
separated  by  a  few  inches  of  soil.  There  had  evidently  been  a 
change  of  plan  in  this  quarter  which  had  led  to  secondary  con- 
struction, thus  modifying  more  or  less  the  original  architecture. 
The  exterior  walls  of  the  compound  at  this  point  and  for  about  50 
feet  north  along  the  east  wall  are  double.  Within  the  inclosure 
near  the  southeast  angle  1  appeared  rows  of  decayed  posts,  remains 
of  walls,  arranged  in  quadrangular  form,  indicating  the  former 
existence  of  several  fragile-walled  dwellings. 

East  of  Pyramid  A,  between  it  and  the  east  wall  of  the  compound, 
were  traced  portions  of  the  massive  walls  of  a  large  building,  very 
much  mutilated.  To  the  north  of  this  building  are  remains  of  three 
fine  rectangular  buildings  having  well-formed  floors,  fireplaces,  and 
walls. 

NORTH    PLAZA. 

Due  north  of  Pyramid  A,  between  it  and  the  north  wall,  from 
which  it  is  separated  by  a  narrow  passage,  was  found  a  large  build- 
ing fully  40  feet  long;  the  floor  is  partially  subterranean  and  the 
doorway  opens  to  the  south.  Between  this  building  and  the  north- 
east corner  of  the  compound  were  other  massive  rooms,  the  walls 
of  which  are  destroyed  to  so  great  an  extent  that  their  ground  plan 
can  not  satisfactorily  be  traced.  In  this  region  reoccurs  evidence 
of  successive  strata  of  floors,  suggesting  repeated  occupancy  of  the 
same  site  by  the  rebuilding  of  new  houses  on  the  debris  formed  by 
the  destruction  of  older  ones.  Almost  all  the  north  side  of  this 
compound  is  occupied  by  a  room  15  feet  wide  and  extending  in 
length  about  80  feet  eastward  from  the  northwest  angle.  The  use 
of  a  room  of  this  shape  and  size  is  conjectural.  There  is  no  evidence 
of  the  former  existence  in  this  area  of  rooms  of  fragile  construction. 

1  It  was  not  possible  to  trace  the  rooms  by  means  of  the  remaining  walls  in  the  south- 
east angle  of  this  inclosure,  owing  in  part  to  the  dilapidated  condition  of  these  walls. 


22  CASA   GRANDE    RUIN,   ARIZONA. 

WEST   AREA. 

The  west  area  of  the  inclosure,  or  the  section  north  of  Pyramid  B, 
was  wholly  covered  with  fragile-walled  buildings,  the  remnants  of 
which  show  that  they  were  built  along  streets  and  around  courts, 
which  can  still  readily  be  traced.  Here  occur  also  remnants  of 
thick  walls,  indicating  dwellings  of  moderate  height  but  without 
large  rooms.  It  would  seem  from  the  arrangement  of  the  rows  of 
holes  in  which  the  upright  supports  of  the  former  walls  stood  that 
a  street,  extending  north  and  south,  bisected  this  section  of  the 
compound  and  that  rooms  were  arranged  along  both  sides.  These 
rooms  were  rectangular,  with  a  firepot  or  fireplace  in  the  floor  of 
each  at  or  near  the  center;  the  doorways  are  in  the  longer  side, 
about  midway. 

Attention  should  be  called  to  a  room  of  this  row,  on  the  north 
side  of  the  street  about  west  of  the  middle  pyramid.  West  of  the 
great  Pyramid  A  was  an  inclosure  in  the  walls  of  a  house,  containing 
three  small  stone  idols  and  a  number  of  oddly  formed  stones,  all 
suggestive  of  shrine  deposits. 

When  the  workmen  who  had  excavated  this  shrine  and  removed 
its  contents  ceased  work,  one  of  the  Pima  made  a  symbol  called 
tcuhuki  ("  house  of  Tcuhu,")  on  the  pile  of  excavated  sand.  Although 
disclaiming  any  knowledge  of  connection  between  this  figure  and 
the  contents  of  the  shrine,  he  gave  reason  to  believe  there  was  some 
meaning  not  yet  discovered.  The  same  symbol  was  found  by 
Mindeleff  on  a  wall  of  Casa  Grande. 

The  collection  of  stones  from  this  shrine  is  a  remarkable  one,  being 
equaled  only  by  the  contents  of  certain  shrines  of  the  Hopi.  Most 
of  these  stones  had  been  brought  from  a  distance;  they  consist  of 
bowlders  and  pebbles  from  the  Gila,  twisted  and  contorted  frag- 
ments of  lava,  petrified  wood,  and  objects  of  sandstone  and  other 
rocks,  botryoidal  in  form.  There  are  also  pigments  of  various 
colors — green  copper  ore,  white  kaolin,  and  black  shale,  with  frag- 
ments of  red  iron  oxide. 

The  general  appearance  of  Compound  B  after  excavation  leads 
to  the  belief  that  it  contained  fewer  massive-walled  buildings  than 
Compound  A,  and  that  the  number  of  more  perishable  habitations 
was  much  larger. 

The  character  of  the  mounds  of  Compound  B  and  the  evidence  of 
great  erosion  (greater  than  in  Compound  A)  they  exhibit  suggest 
considerable  age,  an  idea  confirmed  by  the  superposed  strata  of  floors 
and  the  subterranean  walls  and  "  pit  rooms  "  under  the  boundary 
walls.  Compound  B  is  believed  to  be  much  older  than  Compound  A, 
but  whether  it  was  abandoned  before  the  latter  was  erected  is  a  ques- 
tion which  can  not  be  answered.  The  age  of  Compound  B  as  com- 
pared with  that  of  the  other  compounds  is  also  hypothetic ;  few  data 
remain  that  can  be  used  in  such  comparisons. 

SUBTERRANEAN  ROOMS. 

Subterranean  rooms  were  found  near  the  northeast  corner  of  Com- 
pound B,  apparently  filling  the  whole  of  that  section.  The  best- 
preserved  of  these  lies  directly  under  the  east  wall,  which  passes  over 
it  at  an  angle.  It  seemed  important  to  protect  this  room  by  erecting 


CASA   GRANDE   RUIN,   ARIZONA.  23 

a  roof  over  it.  The  position  of  the  wall,  of  the  floor  beneath,  and  of 
the  fireplace  several  feet  below  it  and  the  level  of  the  plain,  indicates 
that  these  subterranean  structures  were  made  before  the  wall  of  the 
compound  was  constructed. 

The  presence  of  subterranean  rooms  under  the  walls  of  Compound 
B  proves  that  the  people  of  this  region  lived  in  pit-dwellings  on  that 
site  before  they  constructed  the  wall.  This  fact  points  to  a  belief 
that  the  pit  dwelling  is  the  oldest  form,  and  if  so  search  for  the  kin 
of  the  original  inhabitants  of  the  Gila-Salt  Valleys  may  be  made 
among  those  dwelling  in  similar  habitations.  Taken  in  connection 
with  the  existence  of  cremation,  this  clue  serves  to  direct  attention 
to  California  tribes,  thus  adding  weight  to  a  legend  that  the  pre- 
historic peopling  of  southern  Arizona  was  by  migration  by  way  of 
the  mouth  of  the  Gila. 

COMPOUND  C. 

Compound  C,  situated  due  west  of  B,  is,  on  account  of  its  moder- 
ate height,  the  least  conspicuous  of  all  the  compounds.  As  there  are 
no  mounds  within  the  inclosure  it  seems  never  to  have  had  extensive 
buildings,  but  to  have  been  merely  a  rectangular  area  surrounded  by 
a  wall,  in  which  was  clustered  a  large  number  of  fragile-walled 
rooms  that  once  served  for  dwellings  but  are  now  destroyed.  The 
outside  dimensions  of  the  compound  are  not  far  from  300  feet  long 
by  40  feet  wide,  and  the  surrounding  wall  in  places  was  4  feet  in 
thickness  and  probably  breast  high.  There  appears  to  have  been 
a  gateway  about  midway  in  the  west  side,  and  at  the  northwest  corner 
was  once  an  opening  of  considerable  size.  The  shape  of  the  com- 
pound is  not  perfectly  rectangular,  the  whole  northern  portion  hav- 
ing been  much  more  eroded  by  the  elements  than  the  southern  end. 
In  the  southern  section  still  remain  fragments  of  walls,  some  of 
which  were  a  part  of  buildings  of  considerable  size,  possibly  of  com- 
munal nature.  Most  of  the  Avails  of  buildings  in  Compound  C  were 
supported  by  upright  posts,  the  stumps  of  some  of  which  still  remain, 
notwithstanding  the  walls  themselves  have  fallen.  In  the  southeast 
corner  rose  a  small  square  tower,  or  lookout,  the  foundations  of  which 
are  well  preserved,  although  the  portion  of  the  walls  above  ground  is 
entirely  destroyed. 

The  greater  part  of  Compound  C  was  covered  with  rows  of  houses, 
the  floors  and  fragments  of  the  walls  of  which,  although  present  in 
several  places,  are  now  very  much  dilapidated.  All  the  evidence  in- 
dicates that  this  compound  was  of  much  later  construction  than  Com- 
pounds A  and  B  and  that  it  was  not  inhabitated  long  enough  to  have 
temples  or  specialized  rooms  for  ceremonial  purposes. 

Not  far  from  the  west  side  of  this  compound  can  be  traced  for  a 
considerable  distance  the  remains  of  an  irrigating  ditch,  which  ex- 
tends from  the  Gila  to  a  point  west  of  the  Casa  Grande  Group  of 
ruins.  This  ditch  entered  the  Gila  at  a  point  higher  up,  about  3 
miles  from  the  ruin. 

Near  this  compound,  averaging  about  20  feet  distance  from  the 
surrounding  walls,  is  a  succession  of  low  mounds  resembling  the 
refuse-heaps  found  in  the  vicinity  of  the  other  compounds.  From 
the  numerous  fragments  of  pottery  that  are  found  on  them,  it  may 
be  inferred  that  some  of  these  mounds  were  perhaps  places  where 
pottery  was  fired;  others  of  circular  shape  show  on  their  surface 


24  CASA   GRANDE   RUIN,   ARIZONA. 

charcoal  and  wood  ashes.  These  elevations  may  possibly  have  been 
used  in  some  instances  for  the  cremation  of  human  bodies.  Excava- 
tions in  mounds  of  this  kind  revealed  alternate  layers  of  charcoal 
and  ashes,  with  drifted  sand  deposited  upon  each.  From  the  rela- 
tively large  number  of  pottery  fragments  and  stone  implements  in 
this  mound  it  appears  that  the  place  was  formerly  inhabited  by  a 
large  number  of  persons.  The  inclosing  wall  served  as  a  protection 
for  the  buildings  within  it  that  have  long  since  fallen. 

COMPOUND  D. 

Compound  D,  which  is  situated  about  the  same  distance  east  of 
Compound  B  as  is  Compound  C  in  the  opposite  direction,  is  rectangu- 
lar and  oriented  about  north  and  south,  as  are  other  Casa  Grande 
compounds.  It  was  of  apparently  the  same  general  character  as  the 
others,  containing  a  massive  building  centrally  placed,  the  walls  of 
which  have  been  greatly  eroded  by  the  elements. 

Within  the  surrounding  wall  were  also  numerous  rooms  whose 
fragile  walls  have  fallen,  burying  their  floors  two  or  three  feet  below 
the  surface.  At  the  periphery  of  one  of  the  floors  a  row  of  holes  in 
which  upright  posts  formerly  stood  could  readily  be  traced,  showing 
that  the  room  was  rectangular  in  form  and  had  a  doorway  on  one 
side.  The  fireplace,  a  round  depression  in  the  floor  just  in  front  of 
the  doorway,  still  contained  ashes.  The  conditions  here  are  similar 
to  those  in  Compound  B.  The  massive-walled  buildings  doubtless 
served  as  granaries  or  possibly  were  devoted  to  religious  purposes; 
the  fragile- walled  structures  were  the  dwellings  of  the  people.  The 
eroded  appearance  of  this  compound  suggests  great  age,  stamping 
it  as  one  of  the  oldest  of  the  Casa  Grande  Group. 

In  the  character  of  the  masonry  the  massive-walled  buildings  of 
Compound  D  closely  resemble  those  elsewhere  described.  They  are 
not  as  high  as  the  corresponding  structures  of  Compounds  A  and  B, 
having  been  greatly  weathered.  The  surrounding  wall  was  low,  in 
no  place  above  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and  its  course  could  not  be 
traced  by  excavation.  The  central  building  was  apparently  connected 
by  a  wall  with  one  side  of  the  wall  of  the  compound. 

On  the  plastering  of  one  of  these  buildings  are  black  impressions 
of  human  hands.  The  rooms  were  excavated  to  their  floors,  but  no 
objects  of  importance  were  found. 

COMPOUNDS  E  AND  F. 

Remnants  of  large  walls  identified  as  boundaries  of  several  other 
compounds  were  traced  at  various  places  in  the  reservation,  the  most 
conspicuous  being  those  of  Compounds  E  and  F,  which  could  be  fol- 
lowed for  a  considerable  distance  west  of  Compound  A.  These  in- 
close low  white  mounds,  sparsely  covered  with  mesquite  and  other 
growth,  which  seem  to  contain  the  remains  of  massive  buildings,  the 
walls  of  which  have  fallen  or  have  been  worn  down  by  rains  to  a 
level  with  the  plain.  In  this  vicinity  there  are  numerous  other  low 
mounds  without  walls  which  bear  outward  resemblance  to  refuse 
piles. 

No  excavations  were  made  in  these  mounds,  although  there  is  evi- 
dence that  some  of  them  would  repay  examination.  The  presence  of 


CASA   GRANDE   RUIN,   ARIZONA.  25 

fragments  of  pottery  and  broken  stone  objects,  apparently  worked  by 
hand,  suggests  sites  of  many  former  habitations. 

CLAN-HOUSE    1. 

- 

In  addition  to  the  compounds,  or  structures  inclosed  by  a  common 
wall,  there  is  a  type  of  thick-walled  buildings  at  Casa  tirande  from 
which  this  wall  is  absent  or  at  least  has  not  yet  been  discovered.  The 
best  example  of  this  type  is  the  so-called  Clan-House  1. 

Clan-house  1  is  740  feet  due  east  of  Compound  A.  The  group  of 
rooms  brought  to  light  by  excavation  possibly  belonged  to  a  large 
compound  the  boundary  walls  of  which  had  been  practically  buried 
or  totally  destroyed.  When  work  on  Clan-house  1  began,  two  ash- 
colored,  treeless  mounds,  rising  a  few  feet  above  the  level  of  the  plain, 
were  all  that  was  visible,  the  space  between  the  mounds  being  covered 
with  scattered  trees,  bushes,  and  cacti. 

Clan-house  1  has  11  rooms  inclosing  a  plaza,  its  outside  measure- 
ments, exclusive  of  the  annex,  being  113  feet  long  and  49  feet  wide. 
The  longer  walls  extend  east  and  west,  instead  of  north  and  south 
as  in  the  compounds.  In  addition  to  the  11  rooms  which  form  the 
main  portion  of  the  structures  excavated,  there  are  three  low-walled 
rooms  on  the  east  side,  which  we  may  call  the  annex ;  one  of  the  main 
purposes  of  this  structure  was  to  contain  the  grave  of  the  former 
chief,  possibly  the  owner  of  the  whole  building.  From  various  cir- 
cumstances it  is  believed  that  the  walls  of  this  annex  were  built  later 
than  the  remainder.  The  walls  of  clan  house  1  are  massive,  averag- 
ing 4  feet  in  thickness;  the  altitude  of  the  highest  is  10  feet.  As 
shown  in  broken  sections,  these  walls  were  supported  in  part  by  up- 
right logs,  but  were  constructed  of  huge  cubes  of  rammed  natural 
cement,  in  the  same  way  as  the  walls  of  Casa  Grande.  The  arrange- 
ment of  the  11  rooms  composing  Clan-house  1  is  as  follows :  On  both 
the  north  and  south  sides  there  is  a  row  of  rooms  the  breadth  of  which 
is  about  uniform,  while  the  length  varies ;  the  room  at  the  east  end  of 
each  series  is  the  largest.  There  are  five  rooms  in  the  series  on  the 
north  and  four  in  the  series  on  the  south.  To  the  west  of  the  plaza, 
between  these  rooms  and  connecting  them  on  this  end,  are  two  rooms, 
which  have  the  highest  walls  and  were  apparently  the  most  important 
rooms  in  Clan-house  1.  These  rooms  occupy  about  half  of  the  space 
between  the  north  and  south  series  of  rooms,  the  remaining  area  con- 
sisting of  a  plaza,  or  open  space,  having  an  entrance  from  the  room 
on  the  west  side.  The  several  rooms  in  the  series  on  the  north  side 
do  not  communicate,  nor  have  they  external  passageways  except  in 
two  instances;  also,  room  in  the  southwest  corner  communicates  with 
a  large  room  at  the  west  end  of  the  plaza.  In  the  middle  of  the  cen- 
trally placed  of  the  11  rooms  above  mentioned  was  found  a  seat  fac- 
ing the  south,  made  of  a  great  block  of  natural  cement. 

It  is  suggested  that  Clan-house  1  was  a  structure  similar  to  Casa 
Grande  proper  and  pertained  to  the  worship  of  the  six  primary 
points — north,  west,  south,  east,  above,  and  below.  It  is  an  interest- 
ing fact  that  the  number  of  rooms  in  Clan-house  1,  excepting  the 
annex,  is  exactly  the  same  as  in  Casa  Grande.  In  the  former,  how- 
ever, the  11  rooms  are  one  story  in  height,  whereas  in  Casa  Grande 
there  were  five  rooms  in  each  of  two  lower  stories  and  one  room  in 
a  third. 


26  CASA   GKANDE   RUIN,   ARIZONA. 

Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  of  the  several  rooms  in  Clan-house 
1  are  the  two  massive-walled  inclosures  on  the  north  side,  which  have 
been  designated  "  the  annex."  One  of  these  seems  to  have  been 
merely  an  open  space  surrounded  by  thick  walls  formerly  higher 
than  at  present.  In  this  inclosure  were  found  the  remains  of  a 
walled-up  cyst  of  natural  cement,  one  side  of  which  was  built  con- 
tinuous with  the  south  wall ;  the  other  sides  of  this  cyst,  visible  from 
the  room,  were  decorated  with  figures  of  birds  and  other  animals, 
painted  red. 

In  the  interior  of  this  cyst,  or  rude  sarcophagus  was  found  a  human 
skeleton  extended  at  full  length  with  the  head  directed  to  the  east; 
near  the  head  was  a  receptacle  for  mortuary  offerings.  From  the 
nature  of  the  objects  associated  with  this  skeleton  and  the  special 
receptacle  apparently  made  for  them,  it  is  supposed  that  the  remains 
wTere  those  of  an  old  priest,  possibly  of  a  chief,  who  once  occupied 
these  rooms.  The  mortuary  objects  appear  to  be  priestly  parapher- 
nalia, similar  to  those  now  used  in  ceremonies  by  priests  of  the 
Pueblo  Indians.  All  the  facts  gathered  show  that  this  burial  cham- 
ber was  built  after  the  main  building  was  constructed,  but  its  age, 
as  compared  with  that  of  the  other  compounds,  is  unknown.  In  the 
sand  outside  the  walls  were  found  one  or  two  clay  vessels  containing 
burnt  human  bones,  covered  with  clay  disks,  which  are  supposed  to 
be  the  partially  cremated  remains  of  inhabitants  of  this  building. 
The  two  methods  of  disposal  of  the  dead — inhumation  and  crema- 
tion— were  practised  in  all  the  compounds  of  Casa  Grande.1 

It  is  sometimes  stated  that  the  priests  of  the  Gila  compounds  were 
always  buried  in  houses  while  the^less-favored  classes  were  cremated, 
their  calcined  bones  being  deposited  in  cinerary  urns  or  vases  that 
later  were  buried  on  the  borders  of  the  mounds  where  they  had  been 
committed  to  the  flames.  While  not  able  to  prove  or  disprove  this 
theory,  it  is  believed  that  the  grave  of  the  chief  of  Clan-house  1  has 
an  important  bearing  on  this  question.  Here,  as  stated,  a  man  was 
found  buried  with  care  in  a  rude  sarcophagus  evidently  constructed 
for  the  purpose.  A  human  skelton  was  also  excavated  from  the 
plaza  west  of  the  northeast  building  of  the  same  compound,  at  the 
point  marked  "  skeleton  "  in  the  ground  plan  of  that  compound. 

REFUSE  HEAPS. 

The  large  structures,  especially  compounds  A,  B,  and  C,  are  sur- 
rounded by  refuse  heaps,  the  surfaces  of  which  are  strewn  in  some 
cases  sparingly,  in  others  plentifully,  with  fragments  of  pottery  and 
^with  ashes  and  other  evidences  of  human  occupancy.  No  remains  of 
house  walls  were  found  in  these  mounds,  and  their  structure  shows 
that  they  may  be  regarded  as  dumping  places  for  the  habitations  in 
the  vicinity.  Some  of  these  heaps  were  thrown  up  from  neighboring 
depressions,  or  reservoirs,  and  their  stratification  indicates  that  layers 
of  earth  were  deposited  on  them  at  different  times.  A  vertical  sec- 
tion exhibits  beds  of  ashes  and  other  refuse  alternating  with  sand 
and  soil,  showing  how  the  mounds  increased  in  size.2 

*At  the  present  day  the  Plma  bury  their  dead,  and  the  graves  of  the  shamans  are  differ- 
ent from  those  of  other  people.  The  custom  of  burning  the  dead  docs  not  now  exist 
among  these  people. 

3  One  of  the  largest  of  these  refuse  heaps  lies  between  Compound  A  and  Clan-house  1, 
nearer  the  former.  This  mound,  wliidi  extends  about  parallel  with  the  east  wall  of 
Compound  A,  contains  many  fragments  of  pottery. 


ARIZONA.  27 

Distinct  from  these  are  the  small  mounds  or  elevations,  rising  a 
foot  or  two  above  the  plain,  that  likewise  mark  man's  presence. 
These  mounds  indicate  the  former  existence  of  dwellings  in  the  open, 
and  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  outside  the  compounds,  espe- 
cially along  the  irrigation  ditches,  there  were  isolated  dwellings 
somewhat  resembling  the  modern  Pima  houses.  While  these  may 
have  been  shelters  used  by  farmers  only  while  planting  or  watching 
their  crops,  they  show  that  the  country  around  the  compounds  had 
its  quota  of  inhabitants.  Within  and  near  the  compounds  these 
houses  may  have  been  very  numerous,  so  closely  arranged  as  to  give 
the  appearance  of  a  village,  in  the  middle  of  which  rose  the  great 
communal  structure  that  served  as  a  place  of  refuge  in  great  emer- 
gencies or  for  ceremonies  when  desired. 

A  mound  situated  a  short  distance  east  of  Compound  B  was  exca- 
vated to  the  depth  of  9  feet.  Trenches  were  dug  across  it  at  right 
angles,  bisecting  the  mound  east  and  west,  north  and  south.  This 
mound  was  found  to  contain  fragments  of  pottery,  sticks,  charcoal, 
and  other  refuse;  also  the  remains  of  several  skeletons,  extended  at 
length,  the  skulls  of  one  or  two  being  in  fairly  good  condition.  It 
thus  appears  that  the  inhabitants  of  Casa  Grande  buried  some  of 
their  dead  in  mounds  and  others  in  the  floors  of  houses  and  plazas. 

RESERVOIRS. 

It  has  been  already  mentioned  that,  scattered  over  the  area  occu- 
pied by  the  Casa  Grande  Group  of  ruins,  there  are  several  depres- 
sions into  which  drains  from  the  compounds  have  been  run.  The 
largest  and  deepest  of  these  is  found  northeast  of  Compound  B. 
These  depressions,  which  have  no  masonry  walls,  appear  to  be  the 
places  from  which  was  obtained  the  caliche  of  which  the  buildings 
are  made.  One  or  two  of  the  depressions  are  so  situated  with  respect 
to  the  largest  buildings  that  the  adobe  of  which  the  houses  were  built 
may  have  been  carried  at  times  a  considerable  distance. 

Similar  areas  inclosed  by  artificial  circular  ridges  of  earth  are 
found  in  several  of  the  clusters  of  mounds  in  the  Gila  and  Salt  River 
Valleys,  among  which  may  be  mentioned  the  one  in  the  group  near 
Adamsville  and  the  reservoir  at  Casa  Blanca.  The  Escalante  Group, 
situated  near  the  Phoenix-Florence  Railroad,  also  contains  a  similar 
reservoir.  In  the  country  south  of  the  Southern  Pacific  Railroad, 
inhabited  by  a  group  of  Indians  of  Piman  stock  called  the  Qua- 
hatika  (Kwahadt),  similarly  shaped  depressions  are  recorded,  some 
of  which  are  still  used  as  reservoirs  at  certain  seasons.  This  is  like- 
wise true  of  so-called  Indian  tanks  (Pima,  vashki),  to  the  east  of 
Casa  Grande,  near  the  Santa  Catalina  Mountains,  and  elsewhere. 

Certain  areas  marked  by  no  mounds  or  depressions  m&y  have  served 
as  race  courses  or  dance  places,  the  existence  of  which  is  mentioned 
in  legendary  accounts  of  Casa  Grande. 

On  the  southwest  side  of  the  large  reservoir  is  a  depression  from 
which  were  obtained  the  sand  and  earth  out  of  which  walls  were 
made,  and  a  similar  depression  on  the  east  side  may  have  been  due 
to  a  similar  cause.  There  are  depressions  in  the  surface  near  Clan- 
house  1  and  Compound  D,  and  those  near  the  western  clan-houses  * 
served  the  same  purpose. 

1  There  are  mounds  west  of  Compound  A,  which  are  here  referred  to  as  "  western  clan- 
houses/'  but  those  were  not  excavated,  although  traces  of  caliche  walls  were  found  in 
them.  Potsherds  were  abundant. 


28  CASA   GEANDE   RUIN,   ARIZONA. 

0 

From  remains  of  ancient  irrigating  ditches  in  the  neighborhood  of 
the  several  compounds  it  is  evident  that  water  from  the  Gila  River 
was  conducted  over  the  plain  west  of  Casa  Grande.  Here  and  there, 
especially  near  the  large  mounds,  occur  numerous  depressions  in  the 
earth's  surface,  some  of  which  are  possibly  reservoirs,  or  places 
where  the  water  was  stored  for  irrigation,  drinking,  and  other  pur- 
poses. Most  of  these  depressions  are  surrounded  by  a  ridge  of  earth, 
by  which  their  capacity  was  increased  and  the  chance  of  overflow 
diminished.  Their  prevailing  shape  is  oval.  The  indications  are 
that  they  have  been  filled  to  a  considerable  extent  with  drifting  sand 
since  Casa  Grande  was  deserted.1  The  largest  is  situated  about  mid- 
way of  a  line  extending  from  the  northwest  corner  of  Compound 
A  to  the  southeast  corner  of  Compound  C.  It  was  supposed  that  this 
reservoir  was  lined  with  a  cement  wall,  but  a  section  exposed  through 
the  rim  on  the  south  side,  which  was  solid  sand  throughout,  revealed 
no  such  condition.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  floor  of  this 
reservoir  is  now  thickly  overgrown  with  trees  and  bushes,  although 
without  water. 

At  one  end  of  this  reservoir  may  still  be  seen  a  trail  along  which 
the  women  toiled  with  water  jars  from  their  dwellings  near  by.  The 
shapes  of  the  water  jars  and  certain  headrests  that  have  been  found 
indicate  that  the  vessels  were  carried  on  the  head,  as  at  Zuni,  rather 
than  on  the  back  as  at  the  Hopi  pueblos.  There  is  strong  evidence 
that  the  people  of  Casa  Grande  were  well  supplied  with  water  by 
means  of  reservoirs  and  irrigation  ditches.  This  need  was  not  so 
pressing  as  in  northern  Arizona.  It  does  not  appear  from  symbolism 
on  the  pottery  or  from  other  evidences,  which  it  must  be  confessed 
are  scanty,  that  rain  ceremonies  occupied  the  prominent  place  in  the 
worship  of  the  inhabitants  that  they  do  among  the  present  Pueblos. 
The  people  depended  for  water  less  on  rain  than  on  the  Gila;  the 
river  was  typified  by  the  plumed  serpent,  which  was  worshipped. 

There  are  indications  of  small  mounds  in  the  neighborhood  of 
these  reservoirs,  a  fact  from  which  it  would  seem  that  every  reservoir 
had  a  cluster  of  habitations  around  it  and  that  houses  were  built 
along  the  courses  of  the  irrigation  ditches.  Nothing  now  remains 
to  mark  these  houses  except  the  mounds  upon  which  are  found  frag- 
ments of  pottery  and  broken  stone  implements,  including  now  and 
then  a  well-worn  metate.  Excavation  of  one  of  these  mounds  re- 
vealed a  hardened  floor  surrounded  by  holes  in  which  are  found  de- 
cayed stumps  of  the  posts  that  formerly  supported  the  walls.  The 
resemblance  of  these  houses  to  those  now  built  by  the  Pi  ma  and 
Papago  Indians  is  striking.  They  resemble  also  the  remains  of 
rooms  of  the  ancient  people  in  the  various  compounds  of  Casa 
Grande. 

IRRIGATION  DITCHES. 

The  evidences  of  prehistoric  irrigation  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Casa  Grande  are  many,  but  it  is  difficult  to  trace  any  ditch  very  far. 
The  main  canal  which  supplied  the  fields  with  water  extended  along 
the  left  bank  of  the  river,  from  a  point  3  miles  higher  up ;  this  was 
probably  provided  with  lateral  ditches  along  its  entire  length.  It 

1  Many  of  the  casas  grandes  in  the  Oila-Salt  region  have  similar  reservoirs,  or  circular 
depressions  with  raised  rims.  Cushing's  excavation  of  one  of  these  depressions  con- 
vinced him  that  it  was  not  a  reservoir,  but  a  ceremonial  chamber. 


CASA   GRANDE   RUIN,   ARIZONA.  29 

approached  Casa  Grande  about  midway  between  Compound  B  and 
the  river,  on  the  north  side  of  the  compound,  and,  extending  west- 
ward, turned  to  the  south,  sending  off  smaller  branches  toward  the 
east  and  west.  Although  the  main  ditch  can  not  be  traced  through- 
out its  entire  course,  traces  of  it  appear  at  intervals;  in  some  places 
it  is  clearly  marked  by  walls  of  earth  containing  small  stones  similar 
to  those  found  in  stretches  of  its  bed  nearer  the  river.  In  places  the 
canal  is  20  feet  wide,  adequate  for  carrying  a  great  amount  of  water. 

The  construction  of  the  Casa  Grande  ditch  was  not  difficult,  as  the 
earth  is  not  hard  to  dig  and  no  considerable  elevation  was  encoun- 
tered throughout  its  entire  course.  The  canal  divided  probably 
shortly  after  it  left  the  river,  sending  a  branch  that  runs  east  of 
clan  house  1  to  supply  the  fields  on  the  east  side. of  the  compounds. 
From  the  point  of  bifurcation  the  remains  of  a  smaller  canal  can  be 
traced  for  some  distance. 

As  above  stated,  there  is  evidence  that  buildings  once  stood  on  the 
banks  of  these  ditches,  where  their  former  presence  is  now  indicated 
by  low  mounds  on  which  are  scattered  fragments  of  pottery  and  a  few 
broken  stone  implements  (metates,  or  grinders).  Irrigation  ditches 
are  more  apparent  elsewhere  in  the  Gila  and  Salt  Biver  Valleys  than 
at  Casa  Grande.  The  settlement  near  Post  on  Butte  was  supplied 
with  water  by  one  of  the  best-preserved  of  these  ancient  ditches  in 
the  Gila-Salt  Valley.  This  follows  the  right  bank  of  the  Gila  from  a 
point  several  miles  higher  up  the  river  and  extends  to  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  Escalante  ruin,  where  it  is  lost  in  laterals  or  minor 
branches.  Near  Poston  Butte,  the  southern  side  of  which  it  skirts, 
the  banks  of  this  prehistoric  ditch  are  head  high  and  can  be  traced 
for  many  hundred  feet  without  difficulty.  An  old  Mexican  who  lives 
in  Florence  stated  that  when  a  boy  he  saw  stumps  of  old  logs  in  this 
ditch  at  the  point  where  the  banks  are  highest ;  he  believes  these  were 
remains  of  a  prehistoric  head  gate. 

In  the  following  quotation  H.  C.  Hodge  refers  to  a  prehistoric 
irrigation  ditch  on  the  north  side  of  the  Gila  near  Poston  Butte  i1 

About  2  miles  west  of  Florence,  on  the  north  side  of  the  river,  between  the 
homes  of  Mr.  Stiles  and  Mr.  Long,  is  a  stretch  of  hard,  stony  land,  through 
which  another  of  the  large  irrigating  canals  was  cut,  and  where,  for  several 
hundred  yards,  one  can  ride  on  horseback  in  the  canal,  which  is  yet  so  deep 
one  can  not  look  over  its  banks  on  either  side  when  sitting  on  his  horse. 

Some  of  the  best  irrigating  ditches  in  the  Gila-Salt  Valley  were 
found  near  Phoenix  and  Mesa  when  the  country  was  first  entered  by 
Americans.  That  near  Mesa  was  utilized  by  the  Mormon  farmers 
who  settled  this  region;  others  have  been  filled  or  destroyed  by 
modern  agriculture.  The  lines  of  many  of  the  new  ditches  follow 
substantially  the  lines  of  the  prehistoric  canals,  showing  the  skill  of 
the  primitive  farmers.  The  irrigation  ditches  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Phoenix  have  been  traced  and  mapped  by  Mr.  H.  R.  Patrick.2 
These  can  now  be  traced  only  at  intervals,  and  in  many  instances 
nothing  remains  but  ridges  of  earth  or  rows  of  stones. 

It  appears  from  Mr.  F.  H.  Cushing's  studies  of  the  irrigation 
ditches  3  near  the  ruins  of  Los  Muertos,  in  the  Salt  River  Valley,  that 

1  Arizona  As  It  Is;  or.  The  Coming  Country,  p.  182,  Boston,  1877. 

2  The  Ancient  Canal  Systems  and  Pueblos  of  the  Salt  River  Valley,  Arizona,  Phoenix, 

"ZS'ee  F.'  W.  Hodge,  in  American  Anthropologist,  VI,  323,  Washington,  1893. 


30  CASA   GRANDE    RUIN,   ARIZONA. 

some  parts  of  these  were  well  preserved.  The  main  ditches  were 
large  enough  for  irrigation  when  full  of  water  and  doubtless  were 
used  for  that  purpose.  Not  far  from  Blackwater  is  a  hill,  surrounded 
by  a  prehistoric  ditch  above  the  level  of  the  plain,  around  which  the 
ditch  was  dug  to  avoid  a  too  rapid  descent. 

The  testimony  of  the  old  men  consulted  supports  the  theory  that 
the  ancient  irrigation  ditches  were  dug  by  means  of  wooden  shovels 
similar  to  those  mentioned  and  figured  later  in  this  report,  the  earth 
probably  being  carried  to  a  distance  by  the  women  and  children. 
The  present  Pima  say  that  they  now  organize  to  construct  irrigation 
ditches  in  a  way  somewhat  similar  to  that  of  the  ancients.  As  all 
clans  enjoy  the  advantage  of  the  water  thus  obtained,  every  clan  has 
its  representatives  ^in  constructing  the  canals,  and  failure  to  work 
involves  loss  of  water  right,  although  a  clan  may  be  represented  by 
members  of  other  clans.  The  amount  of  labor  necessary  in  the  con- 
struction of  new  ditches  is  settled  in  council,  in  which  all  clans  inter- 
ested take  part. 

The  construction  by  the  ancients  of  the  great  irrigation  ditches  led 
to  greater  cooperation  of  labor  in  the  Gila-Salt  Valley  than  anywhere 
else  in  the  prehistoric  Southwest.  This  union  of  many  men  under  a 
chief,  with  equal  representation  in  council,  led  to  an  advanced  social 
organization  and  culture,  a  degree  of  culture  which  would  not  have 
been  realized  so  soon  under  less  favorable  conditions.  This  coopera- 
tion and  resultant  organization  made  possible  also  the  building  of  the 
great  compounds  and  the  massive  structures  they  inclosed. 

Excavation  of  one  of  the  banks  of  an  irrigation  ditch  near  Casa 
Grande  shows  successive  layers  of  soil  and  small  stones,  indicating 
repeated  clearing  out  of  the  canal.  The  layers  of  stone  may  have 
been  necessary  to  prevent  the  earth  washing  into  the  channels.  These 
were  also  continually  filling  up  with  mud  and  detritus  from  the 
river,  the  amount  of  which  was  considerable  when  the  Gila  was 
swollen.  The  head  gates  were  probably  made  of  posts  and  brush, 
not  unlike  the  gates  constructed  at  the  present  day  by  the  Pima  and 
the  Maricopa. 

Closely  connected  with  the  irrigation  ditches  are  the  reservoirs 
(vashki),  of  which  there  are  one  or  more  near  every  large  group  of 
compounds  in  the  Gila-Salt  Basin.  These  reservoirs  are  shallow 
depressions  in  which  rain  water  collects,  but  were  not  always  con- 
nected with  the  irrigation  ditches.  Drinking  water  was  probably 
obtained  from  these  and  other  receptacles. 

METHODS  OF  DISPOSAL  OF  THE  DEAD. 

Considering  the  large  population  that  must  have  lived  at  Casa 
Grande,  it  is  strange  that  so  few  human  skeletons  have  been  found. 
There  is  evidence  of  two  kinds  of  burial,  inhumation  in  houses  and 
mounds,  and  cremation,  an  instance  of  which  was  discovered  not 
far  from  the  north  wall  of  Compound  B.1 

Whether  or  not  this  difference  in  the  manner  of  disposal  of  the 
dead  was  due  to  the  rank  of  the  deceased  is  not  clearly  evident,  but 

1  It  would  appear  lh;il  a  people  who  burned  tlu'ir  dr;id  did  not  believe  In  n  resurrection 
of  tt>«.  body.  ;ind  the  s;iiii.-  IIIM.V  !)<•  true  <>f  those  who  burled  their  dead.  The  plMcint,'  of 
offerings  jn  the  grave  Indicates  faith  In  the  continuation  of  life,  but  does  not  prove,  of 
course,  belief  in  immortality.  The  practice  of  boning  the  dead,  which  was  widespread 
in  the  Southwest  in  prehistoric  times,  was  abandoned  when  the  teachings  of  the  mis- 
sionaries were  followed. 


ARIZONA.  31 

the  nature  of  the  objects  buried  with  a  skeleton  in  Clan -house  1 
would  seem  to  indicate  the  grave  o1'  a  priest.  Skeletons  unac.-om- 
panied  by  mortuary  objects  were  found  in  the  pla/as  of  (V>mpoimd 
A  and  in  rooms  of  the  southwest  angle,  but  whether  these  are  ir.ieicnt. 
or  modern  is  not  positively  known. 

The  absence,  so  far  as  known,  of  evidences  of  cremation  lYo:n  the 
cemeteries  of  the  Little  Colorado  region,  including  those  of  Zufii, 
and  of  Sikyatki,  Awatobi,  and  oilier  Ilopi  ruins,  has  been  used  as  an 
argument  against  associating  the  former  inhabitants  of  these  pueblos 
with  the  Hohokam  of  the  (Jila-Salt  Basin.  Moreover,  the  Pima  do 
not  burn  their  dead,  nor  have  they  done  so  in  historic  times.  It  may 
be  said  in  reply  to  this  objection,  that  the  Hohokam  inhumated  as  well 
as  cremated,  thus  furnishing  a  double  precedent  for  their  descend- 
ants. Moreover,  there  is  good  evidence  that  cremation  was  practiced 
in  the  eastern  and  northern  Pueblo  region,  at  Mesa  Verde  for  in- 
stance. According  to  Castaneda,  the  Cibolans  ^  burned  their  dead. 

The  human  bodies  buried  in  the  earth  of  Casa  Grande  were  laid 
at  full  length,  no  remains  of  an  inhumated  body  in  a  flexed  position 
having  been  found.  It  is  usual  to  find  in  pueblos  and  cliff  dwellings 2 
skeletons  buried  in  both  ways.  The  manner  of  interment  may  have 
had  in  some  cases  an  esoteric  meaning,  but  in  most  instances  it  had 
no  special  significance. 

Several  theories  have  been  suggested  to  account  for  burial  in  the 
contracted  position.  It  has  been  asserted  by  some  authorities  that 
the  corpse  was  so  disposed  to  represent  the  embryonic  position. 
According  to  a  second  theory  the  body  was  deposited  in  the  squat- 
ting position  as  suggestive  of  a  state  of  rest. 

1  Cibola  is  identified  by  the  best  authorities  as' ancient  Zuui,  but  no  evidence  of  crema- 
tion has  yet  been  found  in  Zuili  ruins. 

8  A  cliff  dwelling  is  practically  a  pueblo  built  in  a  cave,  and  what  is  true  of  one  prob- 
ably holds  true  for  the  other,  with  slight  modification. 

O 


WASHINGTON  :  GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE  :  1913 


